Tim Burton’s ‘Wednesday’ Casts Catherine Zeta-Jones As Morticia Addams
Snap snap:Catherine Zeta-Joneshas been cast to play Addams family matriarch Morticia Addams inWednesday, the upcoming live-action Netflix series from famed filmmakerTim Burton. This casting comes hot on the heels of a report last week that beloved character actorLuis Guzmán(Boogie Nights) will be playingGomez Addams, so the cast is starting to shape up nicely.YouactressJenna Ortega, who showed up inThe Babysitter: Killer Queenand will next be seen in the newScreammovie, is playing the title character in the series.
Our Addams family is expanding!
Catherine Zeta-Jones will step into the iconic silhouette of Morticia Addams while Luis Guzmán will bring to life the debonair Gomez Addams in the upcoming TV series Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams and directed by Tim Burton.pic.twitter.com/MiofyWIbwy
— Netflix (@netflix)July 31, 2025
Welcome to the Family
Zeta-Jones is a wonderful choice to play Morticia Addams, the stoic mother of Wednesday and Pugsley Addams. Morticia is deeply in love with her husband Gomez, and she seems to enjoy throwing him into fits of uncontrollable desire with only a few words. Zeta-Jones, who has frequently been portrayed as an object of desire in mainstream American projects, should be able to lean into that pigeonholing here. While she’s arguably best known for her physical work in films likeChicago,The Mask of Zorro, andEntrapment, she also has a certain stillness as a performer which I think will serve her incredibly well in this role. It also marks a reunion between Zeta-Jones and Guzmán: the two previously appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s cartel dramaTrafficmore than twenty years ago.
The Hollywood Reporterdescribes this as a “guest star” role, so don’t expect her to take center stage here in the same way that previous iterations of the character have in previousAddams Familyadaptations.
Tim Burton (Batman,Beetlejuice) will direct all eight episodes ofWednesday, which feels very much in line with the aesthetic he has carved out for himself in his thirty-plus year career, almost to the point where his involvement here feels like self-parody. Even with the show’s slightly different approach to this story — it follows Wednesday as she heads off to Nevermore Academy instead of primarily focusing on the antics of the entire Addams family — this very much feels like familiar ground for the director, who only five years ago directedMiss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. This new series hails from creators and showrunnersAl GoughandMiles Millar, the guys behind The CW’s long-running superhero dramaSmallvilleand the AMC action seriesInto the Badlands, so perhaps the combination of their oversight and Burton’s direction will result in something that feels special instead of overly self-aware.
