Attention, "Wednesday" Fans, Here Are 15 Things You Might Not Know About Netflix Series
Netflix's Addams Family series, Wednesday, is officially out and has been making quite the splash.
Netflix
Here are 15 other things you might not know about the series:
1.It broke a record previously set by the fourth season of Stranger Things.
Per Variety, Wednesday is the new record holder for the most hours viewed in a week for an English-language TV series on Netflix. Stranger Things Season 4 previously held the record with 335.01 million hours viewed, while Wednesday totaled 341.2 million hours.
2.Executive producer Tim Burton was attached to the 1991 Addams Family film, but due to scheduling conflicts, directorial duties were passed on to Barry Sonnenfeld, who also directed the sequel Addams Family Values.
3.Jenna Ortega was covered in fake blood and gore when she met Burton, along with series creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, over a Zoom call.
4.Millar and Gough have experience with teen shows — they created the WB series Smallville.
WB / Via giphy.com
5.Ortega learned how to play the cello for the role.
6.She also choreographed Wednesday's big dance scene herself.
7.Inspiration for the choreography included Siouxsie Sioux and '80s goths.
8.Ortega took fencing, archery, canoeing, and German lessons as well — the latter of which she put to use when telling a group of tourists about fudge and colonialism.
9.At 6'3", George Burcea is the shortest actor to play Lurch in a live-action role.
Ted Cassidy, who played the character in the 1960s TV series, was 6'9"; Carel Struycken, who played him in the films in the '90s, is 7'; John DeSantis, who portrayed him in the '90s TV show, is 6'9"; and Zachary James, who played Lurch on Broadway, is 6'6".
10.Thing the hand isn't CGI or an animatronic — he's played by an actor, just like in the '90s films.
11.Victor Dorobantu, the aforementioned actor who played Thing in the series, and Christopher Hart, who played the mischievous hand in the '90s movies, are both magicians.
Hart also played the hand in Idle Hands (after Anton cut it off, of course).
12.Christina Ricci is the only actor from a previous Addams Family project to appear in the first season of Wednesday.
She played Wednesday in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values in the '90s.
13.Thora Birch was originally cast to play the role Ricci eventually took.
According to Deadline, Birch was going to play Tamara Novak, "Wednesday's dorm mother and the only 'Normie' on staff at Nevermore Academy with a focus on all things botanical." While it was originally reported that the role wasn't recast, Ricci's character Marilyn Thornhill checks off all the aforementioned boxes apart from the name.
14.Ortega made a point not to speak with Ricci about playing Wednesday Addams to make sure she kept her portrayal as unique as possible.
15.If Gwendoline Christie's character Principal Weems seems familiar, it's because costume designer Colleen Atwood modeled her look after Tippi Hedren in The Birds.
