Who is Christina Ricci’s “Wednesday” character? Her secret backstory explained

A new twist on the classic Addams family Story, Wednesdayreleased on Netflix this week allows fans to return to the humorous Gothic family.

The new series focuses on one of the two Addams children as she attends Nevermore Academy, a “school for monstrous misfits.” Wednesday was and is one of the most popular characters in the industry Addams family releases. Celebratory posts highlighting her unique Pepper Imgur style every Wednesday afternoon, thanks in large part to the flawless performance of Christina Ricci. Ricci played in several on Wednesday Addams family Releases in the early ’90s and represents for many the best incarnation of the role yet.

It’s been almost 30 years since Ricci last starred on Wednesday, a fact that unfortunately keeps her from playing the high school-aged character in Netflix’s revival series. However, she does appear in the Jenna Ortega-led series, just not in a role that many will recognize.

Who is Christina Ricci in? Wednesday?

Fans were disappointed to learn that Ricci would not be returning to her role on Wednesday, but trailers for the recently released series revealed the famous actress to be involved with the show. She appears at the end of the series’ official trailer in a much more colorful role than many fans were expecting, immediately raising questions about who she’s playing.

Ricci joins the cast of Wednesday as Mrs. Marilyn Thornhill, a teacher at Nevermore Academy. Thornhill is first presented as one of the academy’s few ‘normies’, serving as the ‘dormitory mother’ to the girls who attend the school. She’s also the school’s botanical science teacher and a bubbly, sweet opposite of Ortega’s Wednesday.

But it’s all a trick. The series slowly unveils a years-long conspiracy against the Addams family, and Ricci’s Thornhill takes center stage.

As it turns out, Wednesday’s parents – Morticia and Gomez – attended Nevermore Academy years ago. Their all-round weirdness made them targets in a murder investigation that ultimately attempted to frame the murder of college student Garret Gates Gomez. While students themselves, Gomez and Morticia clashed with the notoriously anti-outcast Gates family, who all died under mysterious circumstances, leading to the allegations against Gomez.

As it turned out, however, one member of the Gates family survived. Though she changed her name to Marilyn Thornhill to infiltrate the Academy, Ricci’s character was known as Laurel Gates long before she was a teacher at the school. Her death by drowning years earlier was faked, allowing the character to return to the Academy to exact revenge on the Addams family.

In an effort to exact revenge against the Academy and the Addams clan in particular, Gates infiltrated the school as a teacher and used her knowledge of botany to initiate her plan. She created a chemical that would clean the Hyde for Dr. Jekyll to teenage Tyler Galpin and attempted to use him as a weapon in their conspiracy.

All this was done to finally carry out the will of their bigoted ancestor, Joseph Crackstone. His vendetta against the world’s outcasts made him dangerous to many, prompting an ancestor of the Addams – Goody Addams – to imprison his soul with magic. Gates hoped to free his soul with Wednesday’s blood and unleash it on the world. Luckily, Wednesday and her friends manage to thwart Gates’ plan and stop Crackstone.

However, they failed to finish Gates off once and for all. Her fate remains unclear in the end Wednesday‘s first season and leaves the show open to bringing Ricci back to torment the only Addams daughter once more.

Wednesday The first season is currently streaming on Netflix.