The fictional town of Jericho is adding more citizens to its census. Deadline reports Netflix’s upcoming Addams Family-based series, Wednesday, has added ten more characters to the cast. The slew of new names include Thora Birch (Hocus Pocus, Ghost World), Ricki Lindhome (The United States of Tara, Gilmore Girls), and Jamie McShane (The Passage, Bloodline).
These three are joined by a crop of young actors including Hunter Doohan (Your Honor, Truth Be Told), Georgia Farmer (Ready Player One, Evermoor), Moosa Mostafa (Nativity Rocks), and Emma Myers (Southern Gospel, Girl in the Basement) Deadline reports. The rest of the cast is rounded out with Joy Sunday (MacGyver, Bad Hair), Naomi J. Ogawa (Skyline, Assassin), and Percy Hynes White (The Gifted, Cast No Shadow). The new additions join Jenna Ortega (You, Stuck in the Middle) in the titular role, and Luis Guzmán (Traffic, Boogie Nights) and Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago, Entrapment) filling the iconic roles as Gomez and Morticia Addams.
In the series being directed by film director, Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns), Wednesday’s time as a new student at Nevermore Academy is bombarded with scandal and mystery when a rash of violent murders plague the academy’s town. In between the usual growing pains of young adulthood – and unusual studying habits at Nevermore – Wednesday must identify the cause of the murders, which could also unearth a decades-long secret haunting her parents.
According to Deadline, Birch is set to play Tamara Novak, a faculty member at the prestigious Nevermore Academy for specially-talented adults. Novak is the only faculty member who is a normal human, or a “normie.” But this doesn’t stop her from teaching on all things botanical. Lindhome is Dr. Valerie Kinbott, a therapist in Jericho who finds a special interest in Wednesday. McShane has been cast as Jericho’s sheriff, Donovan Galpin. He’s a bit averse to the idea of a school for special children, and holds a certain dislike for Wednesday’s father, Gomez.
The rest of the cast makes up a variety of the students Wednesday encounters at Nevermore. According to Deadline, Doohan is Tyler Galpin, Sheriff Glapin’s son. He and Wednesday share a unique friendship that counters his own feelings toward his father. Farmer plays an awkward Gorgon named Ajax Petropolus, whose appearance makes it difficult for him to be social. Mostaga is set to play bee-keeper nerd Eugene Otinger, and Myers is werewolf Enid Sinclair. Enid will be an out-of-state student and Wednesday’s roommate.
Ogawa will play vampire Yoko Tanaka, one of the cooler students at the academy, via Deadline. Tanaka’s status on campus is only overshadowed by Sunday’s Bianca Barclay. As one of the most popular Nevermore pupils, Bianca comes from a legacy of powerful and persuasive Sirens. Finally White will play Xavier Thorpe, a wealthy suitor whose father is an esteemed psychic.
Deadline reports Burton will executive produce along with series writers and showrunners, Al Gough (Double Exposure, Shanghai Knights) and Miles Millar (Supernatural, Into the Badlands). Produced under MGM Television, a slew of executive producers from the Addams Family IP are also attached to the project. They include Gail Berman (The Addams Family, Elvis), Jonathan Glickman (Rush Hour 3, Shanghai Noon) of Glickmania, Andrew Mittman (LBJ, The Addams Family 2) for 1.21 productions, and Kevin Miserocchi (The Addams Family 2). Former MGM TV President Steve Stark (The Handmaid’s Tale, Vikings), and writer-producer Kayla Alpert (Flowers in the Attic, Confessions of a Shopaholic), round out the executive producers.