‘Wednesday’, Is Tim Burton’s Spinoff of ‘The Addams Family’ Still on Netflix After Amazon Buys MGM?

by Conan Simmons – June 20, 2021 – 6:38 pm

Tim Burton has recently cast the lead role of Wednesday Addams in his upcoming 8 episode season spinoff of the classic series, ‘The Addams Family’, which ran on ABC from 1964 to 1966.

The new series is called ‘Wednesday’ and will star Jenna Ortega as the eponymous character. The plot will involve her adventures at Nevermore Academy as she navigates the school and its modern day culture. Wednesday must also deal with her emerging psychic powers as she investigates a series of monstrous killings and the supernatural mystery involving her family’s past.

You’re probably thinking that it sounds more like a show on the CW, kind of like the upcoming live-action reboot of ‘The Powerpuff Girls’. Well . . .

‘Wednesday’ is being produced by Al Gough and Miles Millar, the showrunners of the popular ‘Smallville’ tv series that is a heavy inspiration for the CW adaptations of DC comics from ‘Arrow’, ‘The Flash’, ‘Supergirl’, ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, ‘Black Lightning’, ‘Batwoman’ and ‘Superman and Lois’.

Tim Burton’s ‘Wednesday’ is set to premiere on Netflix in late 2022. However, there may be a complication to that.

MGM/UA Television is the company heading up the production of ‘Wednesday’ and as Amazon recently purchased MGM for $8.5 billion it wouldn’t be farfetched for ‘Wednesday’ to end up streaming on Amazon Prime.

For the time being, ‘Wednesday’ is still set for streaming on Netflix. As the Amazon/MGM deal gets finalized negotiations surrounding previous agreements will be reworked and expected compromises will likely flourish in the short-term. Some deals affected will include ‘The Handmaids Tale’, produced by MGM and streaming on Hulu, and an upcoming series based on Ron Howard’s fantasy film ‘Willow’, produced jointly by MGM and Lucasfilm where it is expected to stream on Disney+. Disney is the parent company of Lucasfilm, home of ‘Star Wars’ and the Indiana Jones franchise.

Cartoonist Charles Addams initially created what came known to be ‘The Addams Family’ in a number of one panel drawings first published by The New Yorker in 1938.

In 1964, ABC television network began airing a popular series starring John Astin, Carolyn Jones and Lisa Loring as Wednesday. ‘The Addams Family’ ran until 1966 and was a major competitor to ‘The Munsters’ that aired on rival network CBS.

A Saturday morning cartoon series ran on ABC in 1973 after the animated Addams Family appeared on an episode of ‘The New Scooby-Doo Movies’ in 1972 entitled ‘Wednesday is Missing’.

Two hit feature films came out in 1991 and 1993 starring Raul Julia, Angelica Huston and Christina Ricci as Wednesday.

A direct to video movie appeared in 1998, ‘The Addams Family Reunion’ starring Tim Curry and Daryl Hannah which spawned a short lived tv series.

In 2010 a Broadway musical adaptation of ‘The Addams Family’ played for 20 months starring Nathan lane as Gomez Addams, the family patriarch.

Most recently, a successful animated feature came out in 2019 featuring the voices of Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron and Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday. A sequel to the animated film is expected to release in October 2021. It is not expected to tie-in with Tim Burton’s live action ‘Wednesday’ that, as of now, is still set for streaming on Netflix in late 2022.