Jenna Ortega is set to take over Christina Richie’s iconic Wednesday Addams that we’ve known and grown to love for decades. Ortega landed the coveted role as everyone’s favorite 90’s dark and goth aesthetic inspiration, adding her contribution to Latinx representation on the small screen.
What direction is Director Tim Burton bringing to the reboot? Burton has explained it will be a coming-of-age comedy adaptation where the youngest daughter of the Adams family will be the protagonist. The story will follow her years as a student at Nevermore Academy, where she’ll attempt to come to terms with her psychic abilities and of course be faced with plenty of supernatural trouble.
Ortega is without a doubt the perfect casting choice for this role, especially since she’s been killing it (pun intended) on TikTok with many crowning her the new “Scream Queen” for her latest roles in Scream, X, and Studio 666. One of her most notable roles to date comes as Ellie, the younger sister of Delilah on Netflix’s You.
So why the surprise? You may remember that back in 2016, Tim Burton was involved in some controversy because after being asked why his movies are always exclusively filled with white people, he replied, “things either call for things, or they don’t.” Burton went on to point out instances in which he believed diversity had been “forced.”
Given the success of well-loved characters like Gomez Addams being portrayed by Latinx actors like Raul Julia and Gomez’s implied Spanish or Hispanic background, this comment felt especially tone-deaf. These comments unleashed a fair amount of backlash on social media.
So, what’s changed from then to now? We don’t know what may have inspired Burton to approve a Latina to fill the shoes of an iconic character like Wednesday Addams, but we’re excited to finally see it. Netflix will give viewers their first look at Wednesday on June 6th, 2022 during their week dubbed “Geeked Week.”
Take a look at the first teaser!