‘Wednesday’: Uncovering the Grand Mystery of Who or What the Faceless Nevermore Students Are
Nevermore Academy caters to all forms of supernatural beings and is a safe haven for outcasts. When Wednesday Addams first attends Nevermore in Netflix‘s Wednesday, Enid gives her the rundown of the school cliques. While she discusses werewolves, vampires, and sirens, she never explains the creepy faceless students. Wednesday never reveals who the faceless Nevermore students are, but there is one possibility.
There are a few main groups of outcasts at Nevermore
Fans of the supernatural could easily distinguish the different groups of outcasts at the school. The obvious ones are werewolves who, during a full moon, “wolf out.” Enid is a werewolf, and so is her family. But unlike her siblings, she has yet to transform into a wolf fully.
The next group are the vampires, distinguished for their round pitch-black sunglasses. How they survive in the sun is unknown. Fans also learn a bit about gorgons, mythological creatures with serpents on their heads, similar to Medusa. In Wednesday, fans saw how Ajax was turned to stone after accidentally looking into a mirror. But he can be reanimated back to human form.
Bianca is a siren and are significantly distinguishable due to their piercing blue eyes. They use their siren song to manipulate others into doing their bidding and can turn into their mythical form while in the water. Another detail is that Bianca wears a unique necklace that stops her siren song. Another group are psychics. Wednesday belongs to the group thanks to her mother also having the abilities.
Thanks to his famous father, Xavier is also presumed to be a psychic. But he can animate his drawings. Lately are shapeshifters like Principal Weems and Hydes like Tyler in Wednesday. But Wednesday never reveals who the faceless Nevermore students are.
The faceless Nevermore students in ‘Wednesday’ could have a Japanese origin
Based on the Netflix series, the faceless students are a heredity gene. While Wednesday deals with uncovering the truth of her parent’s criminal past, fans meet the other students’ families at Parent’s Weekend. In the quad, fans see the faceless students and their family members. All the family members are also faceless. A person can assume the gene is hereditary.
But what are they? Tim Burton and the writers of Wednesday never explore or dive into what the faceless Nevermore students are. But fans on Reddit have an idea. A fan on Reddit explains, “I wasn’t sure either, so I Googled faceless mythology and found this: Noppera-bō.”
It makes sense because the outcasts in the series are based on mythology. “The noppera-bō (のっぺらぼう), or faceless ghost, is a Japanese yōkai that looks like a human but has no face. They are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a mujina, an old Japanese word for a badger or raccoon dog. Although the mujina can assume the form of the other, noppera-bō are usually disguised as humans. Such creatures were thought to sometimes transform themselves into noppera-bō in order to frighten humans.”
According to Yokai.com, the Noppera-bō have an unknown diet. Due to being faceless and, therefore, having no mouth, they cannot consume food. The site explains that they often work to scare humans and revel in the terror that their faceless form provides. Wednesday fans can assume the faceless students of Nevermore are Japanese Noppera-bō.
Will fans ever get to the bottom of Thing’s existence?
While Wednesday solves multiple mysteries, one in the Addams Family universe has never been revealed. Thing has been a part of the family for years, but his origins are unknown. In Wednesday, Enid wonders who or what Thing is. But Wednesday answers that he is one of the many unanswered mysteries of the Addams family.
The cartoon and original series also never explain. He is simply a severed hand that acts freely and independently despite not having a bodily form. Fans never learn his real name or where he came from. Seeing as Thing has remained an unanswered mystery for years, it is unlikely that a Wednesday Season 2 would explore his origins.
