Wednesday

Wednesday: Tim Burton and the secret to the Netflix hit's success

For a series by Tim Burton to be well received in the Addams Family universe, you don't need psychic abilities or the deductive talent of a Sherlock Holmes. But the fact that the Netflix show Wednesday would wipe the floor with virtually every other series of the year is a bet even the streaming provider itself probably wouldn't have made. In just three weeks, people have streamed more than a billion hours of Wednesday - only Squid Game and Stranger Things were more successful in that metric. According to a report by Samba TV, Wednesday even beat out HBO's major production House of the Dragon as the most watched premiere of 2022. Yes, Wednesday was without a doubt the most important Netflix release of the year. Yet it almost never got there.

The rocky road

Back to the beginning: Tim Burton and The Addams Family, they just go together. That's why the director, known for his highly stylised look with colours that sometimes pop and sometimes shine with absence, was approached during pre-production of the 1991 Addams Family film. But Batman and Batman Returns put a spanner in the works of this so obvious dream team. More than 30 years were to pass before Burton was finally able to devote himself to the bizarrely morbid family.

First, Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind the Minions, secured the rights to The Addams Family in 2010. The plan was to make a stop-motion film based on the original drawings by inventor Charles Addams. And who would be better suited to launch the project than Tim Burton himself? After all, he had already proved with Corpse Bride how well stop motion, horror, comedy and his inimitable style go together. Burton was expected to at least co-write the script and produce the film, maybe even direct it. But then the studio did an about-face in 2013, decided to go with established computer animation after all, and didn't need Tim Burton for that either. Again, years passed.

From 2019, the soon-to-be Wednesday showrunners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough worked on their own Addams Family story and even got the rights thanks to MGM. However, the studio lacked, among other things, a big name to market the whole thing. A name like Tim Burton. Gough: "Everyone told us Tim didn't do series. But in my time as a salesman I learned that the answer is always 'no' if you don't ask. So we sent our script to his agent, thinking we'd never hear from him again." But it was only four days before Burton got back to us - and just said yes! With the name in tow, Netflix bought the project and announced an untitled Addams Family project from Tim Burton as recently as October 2020 - though he ended up directing "only" four of the eight episodes.

The real secret to success?

Tim Burton's name is certainly not irrelevant when it comes to analysing Wednesday's success. However, it seems reasonable to assume that Burton's name was mainly important in the background. To get the ball rolling, so to speak. Because the fact that Wednesday would become one of the most successful Netflix productions of all time has other reasons. Many.

This already starts in general. If you were to ask us what genre we'd assign Wednesday to, we'd have to go back a long way. Because there is no such thing as a genre, rather Wednesday is a kind of coming-of-age crime comedy in a supernatural setting, aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at young adults. In other words, there's something for everyone.

This is also noticeable in some set pieces that just don't seem to fit together. When we first watched Wednesday, we saw a mixture of The Addams Family, Emily in Paris and Harry Potter. We don't need to infer where the Addams Family came from. Ditto Harry Potter, as Nevermore Academy is quite obviously reminiscent of Hogwarts. And as with Emily in Paris, we have an outsider who has to come to terms with a situation that is new to her. Whereas Emily as a protagonist is nice but not cool, the exact opposite is true for Wednesday. Which makes her much more approachable, even if Wednesday herself certainly doesn't like to hear that.

Hero, villain, social media phenomenon

Most importantly, the makers have hit the bull's eye with the casting of Jenna Ortega. The actress, who originally even turned down the role because she preferred to do films rather than series (but finally agreed because Tim Burton was on board, so he was important for Wednesdays' success in that respect as well) simply went completely into her role. Ortega even said that her private wardrobe became increasingly black during filming. You can feel that connection, that commitment in every scene.

But why can we identify with Wednesday at all? If we look at it objectively, we see a linguistically adept model student/cellist/fencer/all-rounder who writes novels on the side in her spare time and pretty much knows everything better. Seen in this light, Wednesday is actually an aloof aristocrat, a spoilt child we want to avoid. If it weren't for her many quirks, which make her "likeable" after all. And that, although these quirks are anything but likeable. For Wednesday Addams is also a convinced misanthrope who avoids all human contact, does not shy away from violence and is never at a loss for a nasty comment. She is a heroine and a villain at the same time. A mixture that delights many fans.

Speaking of fans, there is also the issue of social media. Or more precisely: Tik-Tok. In the report by Samba TV mentioned at the beginning, it explicitly says: "The secret of Wednesday's success is mainly due to Gen Z star Jenna Ortega, who appeals to younger and more diverse target groups with representative and social media-suitable content such as the viral dance from the fourth episode." Hate to say, based on our analysis so far, that Wednesday went so through the roof largely because of social media hype. However, it's also clear that the inherent virality of the character, her look and just scenes like the dance certainly didn't hurt.

The fans are begging

The hype around Wednesday Addams did not pass Elbenwald by, of course. Virtually overnight we received countless enquiries as to when we would finally be offering Wednesday merchandise. Which surprised us. It's not unusual for fans to get in touch because they're looking for merchandise for their favourite film or series. But the sheer mass of enquiries about Wednesday, we can definitely give it the label "overwhelming".

Which is also its good points.

Which also has its good sides, because it only made us get a lot of Wednesday t-shirts all the more quickly. Some with quotes from the show, some with an interpretation of the Nevermore Academy logo, but also some aimed at Addams Family fans in general. pouches and posters round out the Wednesday merchandise, though we already know there's more to come. After all, season 2 has long been ordered and if all goes right, Wednesday could well take on the status of a (soon-to-be-terminated) Stranger Things and be with us for many years to come. Just like new Wednesday fan merchandise.