These Are Wednesday's Most Important Influences, According To The Series Co-Creators
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Schools for special students, gothic architecture, spectacularly specific costumes, TikTok trendy dance numbers, and a consistent wave of homages to the original Addams Family are just part of the reason why Netflix's Wednesday works so well. And each of these components were thoughtfully included by co-creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, as well as their creative team which included Tim Burton.
There are a number of very clear sources of inspiration in Wednesday from Carrie to Scooby Doo. But during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gough and Millar went into detail about what really inspired them to make some of their most specific creative choices.
How The Original Addams Family Inspired Netflix's Wednesday
The most obvious, and arguably important, source of inspiration for Alfred Gough and Miles Millar's Wednesday is undoubtedly Charles Addams' Addams Family cartoon and the previous series/movies. In his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Millar explained that it was vital that Wednesday honor the legacy of The Addams Family. Not only did they enjoy doing it, but they also realized how taping into that nostalgia was crucial for expanding the fan experience.
"We also went back to the original Charles Addams illustrations. That was certainly something that we talked to [producer and director] Tim [Burton] about, and he was a huge fan of Charles Addams growing up," Millar said to THR. "Looking at his body of work, it’s so fresh, acerbic, subversive, morbid, fun. There are production design elements we literally ripped out of his panels, which we thought would be a really fun Easter egg for people who do know Charles Addams and can reference that."
Part of referencing Charles Addams' work came in the form of casting Christina Ricci who played Wednesday Addams in Barry Sonnefeld's two films.
"We felt was such a delicious moment to have the two Wednesdays in a scene together," Millar said to THR of having Christina play opposite Jenna Ortega.
Did Harry Potter Inspire Netflix's Wednesday?
Given that most the entirety of the first season of Netflix's Wednesday centers around a school for special students, many fans have drawn the connection to Hogwarts in Harry Potter. The same can be said for Percy Jackson, as pointed out by the interviewer at The Hollywood Reporter who questioned co-creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar about what influenced Nevermore.
"We’ve always loved the genre and Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, certainly," Miles Millar explained to THR before saying that the Nevermore boarding school wasn't supposed to be Hogwarts or Percy Jackson's Yancy Academy.
"It wasn’t any homage to Percy Jackson or anything like that, or Harry Potter, but as soon you get to boarding school, the comparisons are there," he continued.
"We wrestled with that initially, in terms of, if we’re doing the teenage Wednesday Addams, is it funny if she’s the fish out of water in a regular high school? But then we felt like every day should get back to the family, and we sort of wanted her out of the family.," Millar said to THR.
"And then the other thing about the boarding school offered was boarding in the world of the Addams Family. So you see, where did Gomez and Morticia go to school? What is that? How do these people exist in this real world? So, it excited us in terms of opened and expanded the world of the Addams Family, and that’s something, I think, certainly, people have been intrigued by."
How Tim Burton And Stephen King Inspired Netflix's Wednesday
Tim Burton directed four of the eight episodes in the first season of Netflix's Wednesday. He also served as a producer on the entire series. But he wasn't involved with Alfred Gough and Miles Millar's revamp when they first started.
Part of what drew him to the project is undoubtedly the fact that the two creatives threaded a ton of references to his work into Wednesday. This is because they were very much inspired by his work as well as by the general tone and stylistic choices of acclaimed horror/suspense author Stephen King.
"I think, for us, Stephen King and Tim Burton because Tim wasn’t on the project when we first started it and created it," Miles Millar said to The Hollywood Reporter. "The Stephen King element of small towns and teenage emotions run rampant felt like was sort of the elements that [we went for], and then Charles Addams, so those things were really what inspired us."
This Is The Main Inspiration Behind Wednesday
Aside from the source material, Harry Potter, Stephen King, and Tim Burton, Wednesday was inspired by the theme of sisterhood. In fact, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, co-creator Miles Millar claimed that this was "the key to the show."
"This idea of sisterhood is key to the show," Millar said referring to the dynamic between Enid and Wednesday. "We wanna explore that friendship in every way."
But this theme simply wouldn't work without the intense focus on creating dynamic young women to focus on.
"One of the other elements is that [co-creator Alfred Gough] and I have always loved the Addams Family and this character in particular, but we’re also the father of four daughters between us. So, we have definitely culled from life for this one, and I think we’re definitely inspired to write or find a teen girl character like this, who’s so rare, who’s so self-confident, literate, smart, weird and unapologetic about all those things."
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