Another Addams Family movie is hitting theaters this fall, but it is not another entry in the story started by the 1990s live-action films. Director Barry Sonnenfeld, who helmed both The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993) recently told ComicBook he has no interest in returning to the franchise. The filmmaker is now busy with Schmigadoon!, a new AppleTV+ series that debuted on July 16.
“I did my two films on Addams Family, I did my three films on Men in Black, and I got some other things that I wanna do,” Sonnenfeld said. However, he noted that fans of the first film will get to see more of it since a deleted scene is included in Paramount’s upcoming 4K Ultra HD release of The Addams Family. “We’re putting back the entire ‘mamushka.’ There was the big song and dance number in the middle, written by Adolph Green and Marc Shaiman and Betty Comden,” Sonnenfeld said. “We had cut it in half and we’re restoring the full-length version, so that’s exciting.”
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The first two live-action Addams Family movies were Sonnenfeld’s first films as director. He went on to make the three Men in Black movies, Wild Wild West and Get Shorty. He also earned an Emmy nomination for Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and directed every episode of Schmigadoon!. The new Apple TV+ series is a comedy about a couple (Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong) who find themselves stuck in a magical town trapped in a Golden Age Hollywood-style musical.
While a musical might not seem like the perfect project for Sonnenfeld, he was quick to point out that Schmigadoon! does share similarities with his past projects. “One of the things I really like to do, if you look at the body of my work, is world creating. Whether it’s Wild Wild West, Addams Family, Pushing Daisies, A Series of Unfortunate Events, or Men in Black, there’s always a quirkiness to everything I do,” Sonnenfeld told ComicBook. “And, also, an otherworldly, even if it’s real-world based … you won’t see me directing a new legal drama. I wouldn’t know where to put the camera or what to do. The great thing about Schmigadaoon! is it lets me continue in that world.”
Meanwhile, the Addams Family franchise has continued on without Sonnenfeld. In 2019, United Artists released the hit animated movie The Addams Family, which grossed $204 million. A sequel will be released on Oct. 1. The voice cast for the animated films includes Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Nick Kroll, Bette Midler, Snoop Dogg, and Allison Janney. Bill Hader and Wallace Shawn joined the cast for the sequel. The Addams Family characters were created by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938.
