Netflix’s Wednesday has brought The Addams Family to a new audience with a dark mystery tale centering on the titular daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams. Jenna Ortega has brought new life to the character, whose best-known previous iteration was played by Christina Ricci in 1991’s The Addams Family and its sequel. Having been given the chance to develop Wednesday beyond a secondary character, Ortega has not only been delivering on the acting front but also choreographed the fourth episode’s blistering dance sequence.A new video shows the cast of Wednesday reacting to the scene, which is performed to The Cramps’ Goo Goo Muck and is almost certain to become one of the series' most memorable scenes. During the video, Ortega revealed her insecurity about performing the routine, especially having worked it out herself. She commented:
“I actually felt really insecure about this. I choreographed that myself and I think it’s very obvious that I’m not a dancer or choreographer.”
In a previous interview, Ortega spoke about her inspiration for the dance moves performed by Wednesday, mainly from watching 80s goth club videos. She explained:
"I just pulled inspiration from videos of goth kids dancing in clubs in the '80s. Lene Lovich music videos, Siouxsie and the Banshees performances, and Fosse."
Has Jenna Ortega Become a New Iconic Iteration of Wednesday?
It certainly seems that despite the early reservations of some long-time Addams Family fans, Jenna Ortega has created a new standard for Wednesday Addams. While Christina Ricci’s version from 1991 is still regarded as one of her stand-out performances as a child star, in Netflix’s Wednesday, the character is older, and that means there is a whole new world to be explored from that of Ricci’s time in the role.
Of course, there is plenty of room for two much-loved iterations of the character, and Ortega seems to have done more than enough to secure herself a place in Addams Family history. With the first season of Wednesday having already been a massive success with both audiences and critics, there is every hope for a second season to be green-lit by Netflix soon. That may not be the end of the streamer’s new Addams Family-related offerings, though, with the showrunners having already hinted that there have been talks about spin-off shows being possible in the future. Writers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough previously explained:
"We've definitely talked about it, and we talked about it with Netflix. And again, when you create a world like this, the intention is any one of these characters could be the lead in their own show. Certainly, it's cast that way. You know, when you have Fred Armisen, when you have Catherine Zeta-Jones, when you have Luis Guzman. So that's certainly something that we've discussed and would very much like in success to really kind of branch out this world beyond just Wednesday."
Season 1 of Wednesday is streaming in its entirety on Netflix now.