‘Wednesday’: Thora Birch Departs Netflix’s Addams Family Series For Personal Reasons

Nellie Andreeva
·2 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Thora Birch has exited Wednesday, Tim Burton’s live-action Addams Family series for Netflix. The series, which is filming in Romania, stars Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams during her years at Nevermore Academy.

“Thora has returned to the States to attend to a personal matter and will not be returning to the production,” a rep for series producer MGM said in a statement to Deadline.

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According to sources, Birch is dealing with a family illness.

I hear Birch had finished filming the bulk of her series regular role as Tamara Novak, Wednesday’s dorm mother and the only “Normie” on staff at Nevermore Academy with a focus on all things botanical.

The role will not be recast, with producers looking to add a new character to the show’s first season, I hear. It is unclear whether that character will take over for Tamara and help close out her planned storyline with both of them co-existing on the show or whether the new character will replace Tamara and Birch’s scenes will be reshot.

The large cast of Wednesday includes Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones as matriarch Morticia Addams and Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams.

The coming-of-age comedy, written by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar and directed by Burton, is described as a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery. Burton executive produces with Gough and Millar, who serve as showrunners on the series. Also executive producing are Kayla Alpert, Steve Stark, as well as Andrew Mittman for 1.21, Kevin Miserocchi, Jonathan Glickman for Glickmania and Gail Berman.

Birch’s recent credits include, AMC’s The Walking Dead and the Plan B/A24 feature The Last Black Man in San Francisco.

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