Posted in: TV | Tagged: addams family, netflix, thora birch, tim burton, wednesday

Wednesday: Thora Birch Exits Netflix & Tim Burton Addams Family Series

A major casting change to Netflix and Tim Burton's upcoming "The Addams Family" spinoff series Wednesday, with Thora Birch (Ghost World, The Walking Dead) exiting the project. "Thora has returned to the States to attend to a personal matter and will not be returning to the production," a rep for series producer MGM said in a statement to Deadline Hollywood exclusively (with sources saying it is related to a family illness). Reports are that Birch had filmed the majority of her scenes on the Jenna Ortega (Wednesday Addams), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia Addams), and Luis Guzmán (Gomez Addams)-starring eight-episode series. Birch played Tamara Novak, Wednesday's dorm mother and the only "Normie" on staff at Nevermore Academy with a focus on all things botanical. The role will not be recast, with producers reportedly looking to add a new character to the first season (though it's unclear if the new character would replace Birch's Novak entirely or serve as a kind of storyline "hand-off" to finish the arc).

Gwendoline Christie (The Sandman, Game of Thrones), Riki Lindhome (Knives Out, Another Period), Jamie McShane (Mank, Bloodline), Hunter Doohan (Your Honor, Truth Be Told), Georgie Farmer (Treadstone, The Evermoor Chronicles), Moosa Mostafa (Nativity Rocks!, The Last Bus), Emma Myers (Girl in the Basement, Taste of Christmas), Naomi J. Ogawa (Skylines), Joy Sunday (Dear White People, The Beta Test), and Percy Hynes White (The Gifted, Pretty Hard Cases) are also star. In addition, Issac Ordonez (Pugsley Addams), Victor Dorobantu (Thing), and George Burcea (Lurch) are on board to round out the cast. Created by Al Gough and Miles Millar, the series finds Wednesday spending her time as a student at the peculiar Nevermore Academy involved in sleuthing some supernatural mysteries. Andrew Mittman for 1.21 (The Addams Family, Alphas), Kevin Miserocchi (Tee and Charles Addams Foundation), Kayla Alpert (Code Black, Up All Night), Jonathan Glickman for Glickmania (RESPECT, Addams Family 2) & Gail Berman (The Addams Family, Alphas) are also part of the production team.

Doohan's Tyler Galpin: A townie who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Wednesday Addams. Tyler has a troubled relationship with his father, the local sheriff.

Farmer's Ajax Petropolus: A student at Nevermore Academy who also happens to be a Gorgon. Awkward and shy, Ajax is anxious about looking anyone in the eye.

Mostafa's Eugene Otinger: One of Nevermore Academy's quirkiest students and president of the school's bee-keeping club.

Myers' Enid Sinclair: She is Wednesday's sunny and colorful Californian roommate at Nevermore Academy. Enid hails from a pack of San Francisco Werewolves.

Ogawa's Yoko Tanaka: A vampire with Harajuku-inspired Goth flair and one of the cool kids at Nevermore Academy.

Sunday's Bianca Barclay: One of Nevermore Academy's most popular students, Bianca descends from a long line of Sirens with a mesmerizing power to persuade.

White's Xavier Thorpe: A charismatic and supernaturally artistic Nevermore Academy student, who comes from wealth thanks to his celebrity psychic father.

Lindhome's Dr. Valerie Kinbott: A local therapist in the sleepy town of Jericho who takes a particular interest in her newest patient Wednesday Addams.

McShane's Sheriff Donovan Galpin: Born and bred in Jericho, this Sheriff has always had an issue with Nevermore Academy and a vendetta against former student Gomez Addams.

Here's a look back at Ortega's Instagram post announcing the news of her casting, followed by a look at what Netflix's Director of Original Series Teddy Biaselli had to say about the project when it was first announced:

"Who among us has never felt like an outsider? I truly believe that most people have, at one time or another, felt odd. Maybe creepy. Kooky even. And perhaps because I was so tapped into my inner oddball, I found a deep kinship to the family of Addams.

Whether it was the classic TV series, the brilliant movies, the recent Broadway musical, or even their guest appearances on Scooby-Doo – every time The Addams Family was on a screen, I was watching. I loved that at every opportunity the Addams skewered so-called "normality." Their entire existence was a middle finger (attached to a disembodied hand) to the status quo. And none was more rebellious, more avant-garde and more iconic than Wednesday Addams.

Adolescence is an awful time for everyone. We're growing hair in weird places, getting taller, breaking out, and all we want is for people to like us. She is the ultimate lone wolf. She marches to her own beat… and it's likely a funeral dirge.

When we first heard Al Gough and Miles Millar's pitch for Wednesday we were struck, like an arrow from a crossbow, right in our hearts. They nailed the tone, the spirit, and the characters, but gave us a fresh way into this story. The upcoming eight-episode series is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday's years as a student at the peculiar Nevermore Academy. Wednesday's attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago – all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships of the strange and diverse student body."

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