EXCLUSIVE: After Wednesday introduced Morticia Addams’ sister, Ophelia, last season, we now can put a face to the name (and the back to her head). Eva Green (Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Dark Shadows) has joined the cast of the hit Netflix series as a series regular, playing the troubled Addams family member seen from the back in the final seconds of the Season 2 finale.
The high-profile casting marks the first major addition for the upcoming third season of Wednesday which was greenlighted this past summer, ahead of the Season 2 premiere. It also ends speculation over the mysterious character, including fan theories that Lady Gaga’s Rosalyn Rottwood could be Ophelia Frump.
A raven like her niece Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), Ophelia had pushed her psychic abilities to the limit — and beyond. She was committed to Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital by her and Morticia’s (Catherine Zeta-Jones) mother, Hester Frump (Joanna Lumley), before escaping. Ophelia’s traces were believed lost, before Wednesday, reading her aunt’s journal given to her by Morticia as a token of trust at the end of the Season 2 finale, has a vision of a woman with long blond hair and a flower crown.
Moments later, Hester is seen walking to the basement of her mansion where, locked in a cell, is Ophelia. Still seen only from the back, she is revealed to be wearing a red dress and writing “Wednesday must die” in her own blood on the wall.
Long blond hair is a signature trait for Ophelia in contrast to her sister Morticia’s gothic look. In the 1960s Addams Family series, Carolyn Jones portrayed both sisters, using a blonde wig for Ophelia.
Based on the characters created by Charles Addams, Wednesday is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ (Ortega) years as a student at Nevermore Academy.
The cast includes Ortega (Wednesday Addams), Emma Myers (Enid Sinclair), Hunter Doohan (Tyler Galpin), Joy Sunday (Bianca Barclay), Moosa Mostafa (Eugene Ottinger), Georgie Farmer (Ajax Petropolus), Isaac Ordonez (Pugsley Addams), Billie Piper (Isadora Capri), Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo (Sheriff Ritchie Santiago), Victor Dorobantu (Thing), Evie Templeton (Agnes DeMille), with Luis Guzmán (Gomez Addams), Zeta-Jones (Morticia Addams), Lumley (Grandmama Hester Frump) and Fred Armisen (Uncle Fester).
Released in two parts in August and September, Wednesday Season 2 became the #4 most watched English language series of all time on Netflix, with Season 1 remaining as the #1.
The series is created and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar who serve as executive producers and showrunners. Tim Burton is director and executive producer. MGM Television is the studio.
This marks a return to genre series for Green after her starring role in Showtime’s horror drama Penny Dreadful, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Her upcoming movies include The Trees, Blood on Snow and Just Play Dead. Green is repped by UTA.
