With the most difficult roles sorted—Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán as perfect parents Morticia and Gomez—Netflix’s Wednesday has moved on to rounding out the rest of its cast. The streamer announced ten additions today, most of which are young, lesser-known actors who will play Wednesday’s classmates and friends. But there are a couple of familiar faces among the crowd, including Ghost World and Hocus Pocus icon Thora Birch, who will play Tamara Novak, described as “Wednesday’s dorm mother and the only ‘Normie’ on staff at Nevermore Academy.”
Seems weird to capitalize “normie,” but who knows? Maybe it means something Special at Nevermore Academy, which is apparently attended by gorgons and vampires along with human children. At Nevermore, teen Wednesday will have 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 at Nevermore.”
As everyone has noted, this doesn’t make a ton of sense; wouldn’t Wednesday be more intrigued by a killing spree than anything else? Maybe it’s just not the right kind of killing spree. Not creative enough.
GEORGIE FARMER is AJAX PETROPOLUS, a Gorgon student, while NAOMI J. OGAWA is YOKO TANAKA, a Nevermore vampire "cool kid"
PERCY HYNES WHITE plays XAVIER THORPE, a supernaturally artistic student and JAMIE MCSHANE is SHERIFF DONOVAN GALPIN, who has a vendetta against Gomez Addams pic.twitter.com/tZhPfnjGko
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) August 27, 2021
The rest of the new lineup features:
- Joy Sunday (Shithouse) as popular student—and siren—Bianca Barclay
- Emma Myers (Dead of Night) as Wednesday’s roommate, Enid Sinclair, who comes from of a pack of California werewolves
- Moosa Mostafa (Nativity Rocks!) as “quirky” student Eugene Otinger, a beekeeper
- Georgie Farmer (Evermoor) as Ajax Petropolus, who “just happens” to be a gorgon
- Naomi J. Ogawa (Skylines) as cool vampire Yoko Tanaka
- Percy Hynes White (The Gifted) as “supernaturally artistic” Xavier Thorpe, whose father is a celebrity psychic
- Jamie McShane (Star Trek: Picard) as Sheriff Donovan Galpin, who has “an issue” with Nevermore and a vendetta against Gomez Addams
- Hunter Doohan (Your Honor) as townie Tyler Galpin, who doesn’t get along with his cop dad
- Riki Lindhome (Knives Out) as therapist Dr. Valerie Kinbott
So we’ve got a wholesome looking kid who’s the son of the sheriff, huh? Forgive me if I immediately thought of Riverdale. Wednesday has Tim Burton as director and the creative team of Al Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville, Into the Badlands) as showrunners, and it still seems like a safe bet that it’ll land somewhere in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina territory. (The character of Tyler Galpin has “Harvey Kinkle” written all over him.)
No release date has been announced for Wednesday‘s eight-episode first season.
