Catherine Zeta-Jones Was Born to Play Morticia Addams
Matthias Clamer/Netflix
Just a few weeks after Catherine Zeta-Jones surprised fans with a blonde transformation for Disney+'s National Treasure series, Edge of History, the obviously booked and busy Tony and Oscar-winning actress is proving that there's no role she can't take on with her latest: Netflix's Wednesday, a new interpretation of the classic Addams Family series. Of course, Zeta-Jones is taking up the mantle of Morticia Addams and if Vanity Fair's first look proves anything, it's that she was born for the role, slipping seamlessly into the character's signature slinky, bell-sleeved siren gown.
VF adds that the show enlisted Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood for the looks, which borrow from the show's iconic imagery while adding a bit of executive producer Tim Burton's signature goth touches. Past actresses that have taken on the role of Morticia include Daryl Hannah, Anjelica Huston, and Carolyn Jones. Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, the co-creators of the CW's Smallville, created Wednesday together and explained that the show will play on the relationship between Zeta-Jones's Morticia and Wednesday Addams, portrayed by Jenna Ortega.
"The relationship that kind of hangs over the season is really Wednesday's relationship with Morticia," Gough told Vanity Fair. "How do you step out of the shadow of a mother as glamorous as Morticia?"
Matthias Clamer/Netflix
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The rest of the cast includes Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley, and even Christina Ricci — who starred as Wednesday in the '90s Addams Family films — who will be surprising viewers with an as-yet-undisclosed role.
Vanity Fair reports that Wednesday will feature a mystery with "a number of murders that plague the small town" where the titular character goes to boarding school. Naturally, the whole thing will pit the Addams's "relentless cheerfulness and enthusiasm," against Wednesday's signature "gloomy attitude."
