Wednesday Creators Explain Show Focused on Addams Family Daughter

Wednesday's creators revealed exactly why they chose to make a Netflix show centered entirely on the Addams family daughter.

The creators of Wednesday revealed why they chose to base the series on the character of Wednesday Addams. While Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) is usually a young girl in adaptations of the Addams family, Wednesday sees her as a teenager who is sent to boarding school Nevermore Academy after trying to kill several of her classmates. There, Wednesday must solve a murder mystery while also learning to get along with her fellow outcasts at the academy. The show builds up a strong supporting cast around Wednesday, including her roommate Enid (Kaitlyn Naconn) and principal Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie).

The show proved to be very successful, with over 1 billion hours watched in just one month. While Wednesday's success isn't a surprise, it's somewhat remarkable that it took this long to put the show together, given the beloved nature of the Addams family. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday creators Al Goff and Miles Miller explained why they found the character compelling enough that they wanted to make a show about her. Wednesday, dedicated to exploring a character's growth and her perception of the world, is a unique concept that The two desperately wanted to explore. Check out their quotes below:

"It was a character that we all really loved, and nobody had spent a lot of time with. And it’s a character we’d only seen really as a 10-, 11-, 12-year-old, who is part of a family and would have a funny line in the scene, but we didn’t know much about her. Her sort of fearlessness and her ability to always be herself with something, that was interesting, and we thought, well, 'What if she was a teenage girl? And then what if you took her out of the family and put her in boarding school, which is ostensibly a new family? How would she react?'"

Wednesday Season 2 Can Expand The Addams Family

While Wednesday saw the character almost completely separated from her family, the upcoming season could help flash other members of the Addams family. According to Netflix, while there may be more Addams Family spinoffs, the second season still needs to flesh out other characters. After all, focusing on Nevermore Academy is great for making audiences care about Wednesday and her classmates, but it doesn't help flesh out a character like Pugsley. As part of the family, Pugsley does deserve attention as Wednesday's younger brother, not least because he's also been plagued by a lack of attention in previous Adams Family projects.

Of course, given that Wednesday is a show about Wednesday Adams, it's not entirely fair to expect the show to fully flesh out the family. The Addamses have always been a family that satirizes standard suburban life, but Wednesday changes the Addams family's perspective by taking Wednesday away from familiar surroundings. The whole family does not necessarily need to be explored for different purposes. Still, even without that goal, the show sets out to explore Morticia and Gomez's time at Nevermore Academy, which helps flesh them out, even without much focus on the entire family unit.

What's Next For Wednesday Addams?

A huge success, Wednesday won't be the last time Netflix sees the creepy hero. Wednesday's writers have confirmed that Wednesday's relationship with Enid has not been ruled out, meaning Enid could still appear. So, whether Wednesday returns to regular school or is welcomed back to Nevermore, it looks like Enid will be joining her for the next step in her journey. Either way, the creators accomplished their mission and taught viewers everything they needed to know about Wednesday Addams.