20-year-old Jenna Ortega takes on the role of Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s new series Wednesday, reinventing the cult classic character portrayed by Christina Ricci in the early 1990s. Ricci first starred as Wednesday Addams in the 1991 film The Addams Family and again its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values. 19 years later, Ricci returns to play Marilyn Thornhill in Wednesday, passing the baton off to Jenna Ortega to take on the role of Wednesday Addams.
How The Netflix Show Changes Wednesday Addams
Morticia and Gomez send Wednesday to the same boarding school where they met and fell in love, Nevermore Academy, in the small town of Jericho. There, Wednesday attends school with her supernatural peers, aka the “outcasts”, including vampires, sirens, seers, gorgons, telekinetics, and so on.
How Jenna Ortega’s Appearance As Wednesday Differs From Christina Ricci’s
In a conversation between the two actresses published by Interview Magazine, Ortega and Ricci discuss the fact that Ortega’s Wednesday occasionally wears hoodies and pants—pieces common to the modern teenager but never seen before on Ricci’s Wednesday Addams.
How Netflix Changes Wednesday’s Family & Relationships
As opposed to The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, in which Thing mostly does Gomez and Morticia’s biddings, Thing is much closer to Wednesday in Wednesday.
Why Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Has More Of A Personality
Therefore, by stages of development, Ortega’s Wednesday has more autonomy, responsibility, and expectations from others than Ricci’s version.
Why Jenna Ortega Was The Perfect Choice To Play Wednesday Addams
Nailing the deadpan delivery that Ricci did so well years prior, Ortega states in an appearance on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna that she would relax all her facial muscles, tilt her chin down, look through her eyebrows with the “Kubrick stare” and not blink, using mostly her eyebrows to convey subtle emotion.
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