The little girl symbol of gothic culture and feminism is back: Wednesday Addams grew up, became a teenager and goes to college in new Netflix series to be released on November 23, with the first episode in European premiere at Lucca Comics & Games where on October 31 will also intervene Tim Burton who signs this spin-off entitled “Wednesday”.
In the new series, starring the actress Jenna Ortega (seen in “Jane the Virgin” and “Scream” of 2022), the eldest daughter of more creepy family in circulation is ready to overturn the script of adolescence which can be terrifying, ok. But in this case she is the one to be afraid of. Hieratic expression and sinister charm, to make her an icon also her characteristic look: raven and perennially braided hair, black dress, white collar and even paler complexion.
“Wednesday is a teenager, we’ve never seen it like this before. Her sarcastic and scornful comments may not necessarily sound pretty when they are made by a little girl who is no longer ten years old. It wasn’t easy. We didn’t want her to be like all the other teenagers, but we didn’t want her to seem oblivious “says Ortega, underlining that in this series” she (Wednesday, ed) is at the center of the action. We have the opportunity to give her more depth and in this way she becomes a more real person, something that has never been done before ”.
The series gives a twist to the classic tale of the Addams family. After a series of unpleasant incidents in which she starred in public high schools on Wednesday, Gomez (Luis Guzman) and Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) send her to the Nevermore Academy, the academic institution where they first met. There the girl embarks on a path full of “mystery, chaos and murderIn true Addams style, also discovering dark secrets on her own family dated 25 years earlier, which will lead her to investigate the past of the people closest to her. From the beginning we understand that Ortega / Wednesday is an outcast: and this is the point of the story because unlike most teenagers, she doesn’t want to adapt to others, but to remain herself rejecting social norms.
Another aspect of Wednesday that the series focuses on is the conflictual relationship with the mother. “How do you grow up in the shadow of a mother as charming as you?” asks Alfred Gough, creator of the series with Miles Millar. To complete the bizarre family there is also the brother Pugsley played by Isaac Ordonez, while George Burcea is Lurch and Gwendoline Christie (currently on “The Sandman,” also on Netflix) plays Larissa Weems, the dean of the academy. In the cast of the first season (eight episodes) is also present Christina Ricci who at the beginning of his career had already given the face to Wednesday in two films of “The Addams Family”, released in the early nineties.
“When I read this script, it came back to me how I felt at school and how I felt about my parents, how I felt as a person. He gave the Addams Family a whole new reality. It was an interesting combination ”are the words of Tim Burton to “Empire Magazine”. The series also addresses the theme of solitude, a subject dear to Burton. “In 1976, I went to a high school prom. It was Carrie’s year of release. I felt like Carrie at that prom. I felt that feeling of having to be there but not being a part of it. As much as you want, those feelings won’t leave you, ”says the director who feels very close to the character of the series. “Wednesday and I have the same view of the world”Says the visionary director, author of masterpieces such as“ The Chocolate Factory ”,“ Sleepy Hollow ”or“ Edward Scissorhands ”just to name a few.
A character who has become a myth
Who is Wednesday Addams? “Wednesday (Friday) Addams” is the original name of the character that takes its cue from the verse of one English nursery rhyme which reads: “Wednesday’s child is full of woe” – “The child born on Wednesday is full of misfortune”. She is a true feminist and avant-garde icon, born from the pen and imagination of Charles Addams (famous American designer) who gave him life in the distant past 1940. Daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams, as well as sister of Pugsley and niece of the cute Uncle Fester, Wednesday in the Addams family represents the more glacial and rational part that there is, stimulating the imagination of those who see it in her strength of women and their ability to be themselves going against all the classic social stereotypes.
The same creator defined her thus: “Child full of sadness, she is bloodless and delicate, with his mother’s raven hair and pale complexion. Susceptible and rather quiet, she loves the outings and trips to the underground caves that Morticia and Gomez often organize. She is a serious little girl, staid in dress and, on the whole, a bit lost. Reserved and imaginative, poetic and looking a little worn, she is addicted to occasional temper tantrums. You have a foot with six toes ”.
After the comic, the first tv seriescreated by David Levy, entitled “The Addams family”First aired in 1964, in black and white. Wednesday Addams (who has the face of Lisa Loring) is a girl of only six years, characterized by a black dress with a white collar and her hair gathered in two braids, with strange tastes in terms of pets and hobbies, but basically sunny and vital like all children of her age. In the comics and in the first series, Wednesday is still a “normal little girl”, Only a little inclined to nostalgia and dangerous and extravagant games with his brother. But, then, when does she become a real feminist and nonconformist symbol?
The character takes depth and becomes an icon with the release of the blockbuster films: “The Addams Family” (1991) and “The Addams Family 2” (1993) both directed by Barry Sonnenfeldwhere a first-rate cast – in which Gomez is played by the late raul julia and Morticia from the unsurpassed Angelica Houston – honors and crystallizes in those feature films the beauty and uniqueness of this monstrously happy family, so much so that it celebrates it in all its aspects. In the films Wednesday, she acquires space and prominence as she is no longer represented as a docile child even if with decidedly grotesque tastes, but as a gloomy teenager and far too intelligent, capable and proud of her family and hers uniqueness. In a word: nonconformist.
Merit of Wednesday’s success must be sought in the interpretation of the then eleven year old Christina Ricciactress capable of making her perfect and iconic: with her outfits completely dark and out of fashion, the hair obsessively tied in two braids and the ability not to let anything show from his face if not a careful, inquiring look and always ready to demonstrate his wit. In the years following the films with Ricci, the figure of Wednesday becomes like a real one antagonist of Barbie, therefore of a standardized and stereotyped vision of beauty and female behavior: she has black hair, an austere and black hairdo and clothes, a pale complexion and a predilection for solitude and dark creatures. Wednesday, then, she too becomes a real banner of feminism, as she is a character who refuses to follow conventional norms and society imposed, rejects fashionable clothes and companies, and refuses to submit to anyone he deems below his IQ. In short, the character of “Wednesday” has evolved and strengthened over time so much that it has become a myth.