Tim Burton's Netflix series about Wednesday Addams finds its lead

Jenna Ortega in You — (Image credit: Netflix)

The upcoming Wednesday Addams series from Netflix and Tim Burton has found its lead – Jenna Ortega is set to play everyone's favorite dark-humored adolescent.

Netflix describes the eight-part series, titled Wednesday, as "a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday’s years as a student at the peculiar Nevermore Academy." Burton will direct, while Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar are on screenwriting duties.

It will follow Wednesday's attempts 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 of the strange and diverse student body.

This isn't Ortega's first time working with Netflix – she recently appeared in the family movie Yes Day with Jennifer Garner and she had a main role in You season 2. She can next be seen on the big screen in the upcoming horror flick Scream 5.

The character of Wednesday Addams was made famous by Christina Ricci in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values in the early '90s, spawning a generation of teenage girls' Halloween costumes with her signature braids and white-collared black dress. In the 2019 animated reboot of the movies, she was voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz – a sequel is due to be released later this year.