The Addams Family spin-off Wednesday has dropped on Netflix, sending the clan's iconically deadpan and sadistic daughter off to boarding school.
By focusing on one family member and taking the plot away from the mansion, the show introduces a whole host of new characters, with stars like Game of Thrones and The Sandman's Gwendoline Christie and former Wednesday Addams actress Christina Ricci playing brand-new characters.
It's that new character aspect that made Christie a bit nervous, as she told Digital Spy exclusively.
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"It was a real, exciting honour. It really was. Because I grew up loving the Addams Family. I really did. It always had a really special place in my heart," the star, who plays Larissa Weems, explained.
"I loved the black-and-white TV show. I remember seeing that when I was little, and I just adored it. And then I loved the films so much. They were the most exciting, exhilarating, dynamic, colourful and entirely different films that I’d seen at that time. I really just adored them.
"And so, you know, there was a bit of trepidation there, because it’s important to me that the character worked within the world."
"But at the same time, it had to be something different," she continued.
"She’s the principal of the school. She had to be an individual in her own right. She had to really work with a headmistress, and what that is, and being able to have that mask of bureaucracy, but simultaneously retaining the fact that she is an outcast.
"What was exciting to me was the idea of a woman who is entirely self-created, and who that woman might be, particularly within the world of Tim Burton.
"So it made sense to me to look at a sort of Hitchcock style of woman, of a kind of screen siren, but to subvert that. Rather than that be a woman who is having trauma exacted upon her, she is someone that is in charge of her own destiny, and she is forging ahead with a very strong sense of ambition and determination.
"So that felt exciting to me. It’s also the type of part that I would never be cast as. And as an actor, I love to transform, and I love to play totally different kinds of roles. So it was just a real thrill."
Christie also cited working with costume designer and frequent Tim Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood as a highlight of the project.
Related: Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega reveals why it was hard to ‘warm up’ around Christina Ricci on set
"Getting to work with Colleen, who is an absolute legend, and, to be frank, one of our greatest costume designers who’s ever lived, was an unbelievable honour for me," she said.
"She was so collaborative and so kind, and really celebrated me, and who I am, and my body, and made me feel so great about myself, and totally understood how to transform into this character. It was real bliss."
Wednesday is available to stream in full on Netflix now.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
