Thora Birch was replaced by Christina Ricci midway through the filming of Season 1, and at the time this was reportedly due to a “personal” matter.
Tim Burton’s reinvention of The Addams family coming to Netflix in November, with the new series Wednesday introduces Jenna Ortega as a new incarnation of Wednesday Addams. Someone else in the first half of the series is Torah Berk (Hocus Pocus, The living Dead) who was cast in a key role as Tamara Novak, Wednesday’s sleeping mother at Nevermore Academy. In December last year, it was reported that Birch had abruptly left the series midway through production due to a “personal matter”, details of which were not disclosed.
When Birch’s departure was reported, there were rumors that she was dealing with a “family illness,” but not much else has been said about what happened. In a new interview with Entertainment tonightBirch suddenly addresses her Wednesday exit and suggests there was more going on than was reported at the time. Birch now explains that her departure had more to do with creative differences, as she questioned the ideas the writers had in mind for her character.
“That became such a fluid, moving situation artistically, creatively from episode to episode. I had filmed a certain amount and there were some questions about how much more to go with that character and only a few changes and adjustments were made. It did I don’t think I could go back so they find their own solutions.”
Wednesday’s solution was to get Christina Ricci. to cast
While Birch had to leave Wednesdayher exit opened the door for someone new to come in to replace her, and the person they went with has The Addams family fans are looking forward to the series. Christina Ricci, who played live-action Wednesday in a few movies in the 1990s, was brought in to play a new character in a role similar to Birch’s. For her part, Ricci was just as excited to be a part of Wednesdayas she said recently Collider:
“It’s Tim Burton, I was so honored to be asked by him because he’s just, you know, a genius. And then also to be a part of the new version of this thing that’s a huge part of my identity and my history in my life I mean I know they didn’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts, but it really touched me, and I really liked it. And it’s such a nice world, and my character is outrageous and fun and different from anything i’ve done and it was really great and i just had a really nice experience with that with Jenna who is awesome and i think people are getting a taste of her wednesday, and it’s going to be fantastic.”
We’ll see how this all ends soon enough when Wednesday will make its way to Netflix when it premieres on November 23, 2022.