Wednesday Promises to Breathe New Life into an Iconic Character

For a brief period of time, a couple of years back, I idolised Wednesday Addams. There was something about the deadpan youth and her biting remarks that charmed me to no ends. For a while, even her wardrobe and persona heavily influenced mine.

This idolisation was brought about as a result of the 2019 animated movie, which in hindsight I can only label as a sorry mess. Nevertheless, despite being a dumpster fire, that film did serve as a gateway for me to explore the wider world of the Addams Family. I quickly lost myself in the array of adaptations that the original comics created by Charles Addams in the 1930s inspired.

As any other teen who dabbles in the goth aesthetic, I was heavily influenced by Tim Burton and his slew of films at the time as well. To me, there was something about the tone of the Addams family that bore an uncanny resemblance to those of the Tim Burton movies. Thus, I was not surprised to learn that the creators of the 1990s films had approached him to direct the films.

Thus, when the announcement this year about a new Netflix series produced and directed (4 out of 8 episodes) by Burton was made, I was not taken by surprise.  The fact that the series was going to be focusing on the exploits of Wednesday Addams became the cherry on top of the cake. And the release of the first trailer this Wednesday made me eager beyond words to consume the cake, cherry and all.

The trailer opens with a teenaged Wednesday being expelled from her eighth school in five years due to letting loose piranhas into a pool filled with boys who bullied her brother, Pugsley.  Following this, her parents, Gomez and Morticia Addams, decide to enrol her into Nevermore Academy, a place they attended in their youth. Scenes of Wednesday's time at the Academy, dealing with duels and cellos and fantastical beasts and rains of blood promise 'a nightmare full of mystery, mayhem and murder'.

Jenna Ortega delights as Wednesday Addams, Catherine Zeta-Jones carries the dark glamour that Anjelica Huston and Lisa Loring made Morticia famous for, and Luiz Guzman does not fail to carry the charisma that Raul Julia infused Gomez with.

All the iterations of the Addams family showed Wednesday as a witty child who can cut the air with her words. The fact that the series plans to take a look at how that personality of hers translates to a teenager is admirable. The adaptations so far have also mostly used the shock that 'normal' people get upon encountering the Addams as their primary comic device. However, Nevermore Academy is filled with kids who are just as odd as Wednesday and her family. It should be interesting to see how Wednesday discovers herself when she is surrounded by her kind of people.

The trailer has made me once again find my love for Wednesday Addams and I sincerely hope the series won't disappoint. It is to be released on Netflix sometime soon.

Zaima is a fake poet. Send her your sympathies at zaima2004adrita@gmail.com.