Netflix's Wednesday trailer reveals Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester

The first trailer for Netflix’s Wednesday solves one of the first mysteries surrounding the show: Who the hell is playing Uncle Fester? Brace yourselves, because the footage reveals that none other than Fred Armisen will take over the iconic role in the upcoming series. The actor joined the cast at the New York Comic Con panel to discuss his take on the character. “I wanted to do it right and not have a bald cap, so I shaved my head,” he said. An exclusive NYCC clip featuring Wednesday and Uncle Fester shows them scheming delightfully.

“It’s a tradition,” Armisen says of taking over the role. “I think Fester is a tradition of the Addams Family.”

Co-created by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Tim Burton, Wednesday is a coming-of-age supernatural comedy about everyone’s favorite goth, Wednesday Addams. Jenna Ortega will play the titular protagonist, the first Latina actor to do so. During the panel, the actor said it was one of the reasons she was excited to play the role, “because Wednesday is one of few characters with a global reach who is also Latin.”

As seen in the trailer, Wednesday moves to the Nevermore Academy, which is a safe haven for everyone who arrives there. She’s immediately faced with all kinds of problems, from secret societies, murders, monsters, and, worst of all, cliques. The video features another fun surprise in the form of Christina Ricci. The Yellowjackets star is known for her own Wednesday Addams performance in 1991's The Addams Family and its sequel. She joins the series as a Nevermore professor named Miss Thornhill.

Wednesday also stars Gwendoline Christie as a new character named Larissa Weems, the headmistress at Nevermore. She revealed during the NYCC panel that Larissa was Morticia Addams’ roommate when they were younger, and she always lived in her shadow: “She now has her dream of being in charge. Larissa’s dealing with bureaucracy and the arrival of Wednesday, presenting a strange and discombobulating dynamic between the two women.”

The cast includes Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, and Riki Lindhome as Dr. Valerie Kinbott. Guzman, who also joined the NYCC panel, gushed over the series’ fresh new take on the spooky, scary family.

“It’s a continuation of a legacy that is the Addams Family,” Guzman said of the new series. “You’re going to see them in a different light like you’ve never seen before, and you’re going to welcome it, and you’re going to be entertained.”

The eight-episode first season of Wednesday will premiere on Netflix on November 23, 2022.