Tim Burton is taking his reboot of The Addams Family to Netflix. Last year, it was reported that Burton was developing a live-action series based on the pop culture’s kookiest family with MGM TV. The project was reportedly shopped to various potential buyers with Netflix leading the pack. Now, it’s been announced the Netflix has ordered eight episodes of Wednesday, Burton’s Addams Family offshoot centering on an older Wedensday Addams in college.
Tim Burton is bringing Wednesday Addams to Netflix in a live-action coming-of-age series!
Burton will also make his TV directorial debut on the sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery that follows Wednesday as a student at Nevermore Academy pic.twitter.com/8ei3wIUrxq
— Netflix (@netflix) February 17, 2021
Tim Burton will direct Wednesday with Al Gouch and Miles Millar serving as showrunners. The live-action series is described as a “sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago – all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.”
Known for his movies like Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and Batman, this will mark Burton’s first live-action TV series. He was previously attached to a planned animated Addams Family movie that never came to fruition. In addition to his directing duties, Burton will executive produce alongside Gough, Millar, Andrew Mittman (The Addams Family), Kevin Miserocchi (Tee and Charles Addams Foundation), Kayla Alpert (Code Black), Jonathan Glickman (Addams Family 2), and Gail Berman (The Addams Family).
No actors have yet been attached to the series and it’s not yet clear who will be playing the new Wednesday. Putting the character in an entirely new setting on her own also suggests that the rest of the Addams may only be featured in a limited capacity. Before it was revealed that the series would be Wednesday-centric, there had been fan campaigns calling to see certain actors in the show, such as Johnny Depp or Oscar Isaac as Gomez and Eva Green or Christina Ricci as Morticia.
The Addams Family originally began as a comic strip launched by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938. It has since served as the inspiration for multiple movie and TV adaptations, including the well-known black-and-white TV series from the 1960s. A pair of live-action movies followed in the 1990s along with an animated cartoon series. The show has even been taken to Broadway by Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth.
On the big screen, the franchise also made a recent comeback with the animated adaptation The Addams Family in 2019. The design of the characters is more reminiscent of the original comic strip, taking the series back to its roots. After striking big at the box office, a sequel was ordered and The Addams Family 2 is slated to be released on Oct. 1, 2021. The series is not likely to be connected to Wednesday.
Given his body of work, Burton just might be the perfect filmmaker to reimagine The Addams Family in an interesting new way. There’s no word yet on when Wednesday will start filming, but Netflix has tweeted the first poster for the series on Twitter to confirm that the show is a go. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.
