The only surprising part of the news breaking a few months back that Tim Burton was working on The Addams Family is that it took so long to happen. The filmmaker’s entire career appears to have been building to this moment, and there aren’t many pre-existing properties out there that feel like a better fit for his sensibilities.
Unsurprisingly, the project was the subject of a major bidding war from various networks and streamers, with Netflix officially winning the battle to secure the rights to the latest spin on the beloved favorites. And now that The Addams Family has officially found a home, the first plot details have started to make their way online.
The show will be titled Wednesday, which makes it perfectly clear who the lead character and audience surrogate is going to be. Meanwhile, the first season, if it’s intended to launch a multi-year series, will be comprised of eight hour-long episodes, and follow the oldest child of the family as she settles into life at boarding school Nevermore Academy.
A Latino or Hispanic actress is reportedly being sought for the role, which will find Wednesday stumbling into a murder mystery plot while batting against a mysterious and evil threat, with the majority of the principal cast set to be rounded out by teenage actors with the notable exceptions of the standard Addams Family regulars.
As What’s On Netflix explains:
The first season (it’s currently unclear whether Netflix ordered multiple seasons upfront) will follow Wednesday Addams at boarding school where she’s learning to master her growing set of abilities all the while solving a murder mystery, going up against a new growing evil threat, and battling with her various new relationships around the school of Nevermore.
Based on those brief details alone, it makes Burton’s The Addams Family project sound like it occupies the middle ground somewhere between The Umbrella Academy and the filmmaker’s own Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. That puts him very much within his wheelhouse, which could yet turn out to be a good or bad thing, but Netflix nonetheless appears to have scooped up another guaranteed smash hit.
