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The Netflix series Wednesday is a new reboot of The Addams Family. That’s already a franchise that spans a TV sitcom, two live-action movies and two animated movies. So what does it have to do with Harry Potter? Well, it deals with magic, monsters and a boarding school, so the creators did not want it to be another Harry Potter.

'Wednesday': Wednesday Addams stands with Nevermore Academy classmates
L to R: Moosa Mostafa, Jenna Ortega, Naomi j Ogawa, Joy Sunday, and Nevermore classmates | Netflix

Wednesday creators Al Gough and Miles Millar were on The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top Five podcast on Oct. 28 to preview the series. Wednesday is now streaming on Netflix. 

The difference between Wednesday Addams and Harry Potter 

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) attends the Nevermore Academy. Her classmates include a werewolf, a boy with Medusa and other human creatures. With all the magic on Wednesday, the creators, including director Tim Burton, wanted it to be more real than the world of Hogwarts.

“Tim certainly wanted it to be grounded and I think that was something we all worked for as well,” Millar said on TV’s Top Five. “We definitely wanted to make sure it didn’t feel like a Harry Potter rip-off, that it felt distinctly Addamsy in terms of both the tone, which is I think a lot more comedic, and organically Addams Family. And that I think Wednesday is such a perfect marriage for Tim in that he has naturally a dark sensibility which is the opposite of Harry Potter, which is very sort of I guess sweet. That was something he definitely brought to it.”

‘Wednesday’ is more Tim Burton than Harry Potter 

Gough and Millar hired Burton for a reason. They wanted him to bring the Burton to The Addams Family. 

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We definitely wanted to have a fun nod to horror and Tim’s a huge horror aficionado. There’s that weird mix of tones in the show which I think made the studio very nervous in terms of well, is it a comedy, is it a horror movie, is it teen drama, is it teen romance?  Is it all these different things? We said it’s all of them. It doesn’t have to be one thing. It’s a smorgasbord of things. An audience is able to go from scene to scene to scene and understand what each is and react to that. I think that’s what’s so satisfying. I think Tim’s earlier work really reflects that tone. Edward Scissorhands is a really good nod. Heathers was another big influence for us in terms of the tone. There is a level of humor that’s very, very dark and black that really works for this show in particular. 

Miles Millar, TV’s Top Five, 10/28/22

The Addams Family is still for everyone 

Burton has pushed his darkness before. Batman Returns got slammed by parents in 1992. Gough never worried Burton would push Wednesday too far.

“I think there’s an Addams tone and a Tim Burton tone,” Gough said. “Tim was always very good about that as well. Like all of us, we’ve grown up on Tim’s movies. We kind of knew where the guard rails were on either side so it wouldn’t tip over too much into one thing.”

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