Curiosities about the "Wednesday" series by Maria Eduarda Rodrigues da Silva.

 

More than one of the most popular Halloween costumes of recent decades, Wandinha Addams has become a pop icon. She is the unequivocal representative of the dark girls and with a very peculiar sense of humor. The legion of fans of Charles Addams' character now has a series to call their own: Wandinha, the sinister new series by award-winning director Tim Burton, has arrived on Netflix. The series is an investigative and supernatural mystery that accompanies the years of Wandinha Addams. Right after being expelled from the last high school, Wandinha starts studying at the high school that her parents attended. Therefore, Nunca Mais is a school for those considered excluded, that is, people with supernatural gifts. As well as vampires, mermaids, werewolves and other types of human beings. Unexpectedly, already in the first days, the teenager finds herself directly involved in missions such as learning to master her psychic powers and investigating about solving the murder mystery that involved her parents 25 years ago. All this while she has to deal with her new and very complicated relationships at her new school.

Want to get to know this muse better? I gathered some curiosities about Wednesday Addams that few people know:

1 - Made his debut in 1940

The first glimpse of the character occurred in Charles Addams's cartoon published on June 29, 1940, when the New Yorker showed a couple in front of a skinny orphan girl with long black hair jumping rope at night, in the middle of the street, with a caption that it said: “Twenty-three thousand and one, twenty-three thousand and two, twenty-three thousand and three…”. This was also the first time that Addams used children as protagonists, something that would be repeated throughout the cartoonist's career.

2 - His name has an ominous meaning 

The original name of "Wandinha" is Wednesday, that is, Wednesday. A very strange choice for us Brazilians, who soon found an alternative in the translation of the character's name. But the unusual name has its reason: in a very old English song, predictions of a baby's character were made according to the day of the week on which he was born. According to the song, the one born on Wednesday will be a daughter full of afflictions. Very fitting for our sinister character. In Brazil, to facilitate pronunciation and understanding, she received a new name: Wandinha. It was used in most of the Addams Family movies and series. Possibly a choice to be more similar to the original spelling and to be related to the character's W-shaped bangs.

3 - Your school is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe

By now, we've seen many styles of witchcraft schools in fiction, from Harry Potter to American Horror Story. The Wandinha series will take place at Nevermore Academy, or Academia Nunca Mais. The name is a reference to the poem “The Raven”, by Edgar Allan Poe — published in the book Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Fear vol. 1. The school even has its own website, which you can check out at this link: https://www.nevermoreacademy.com/. A sinister environment tailored to young Addams.

4 - Possesses superhuman powers

Superhuman strength and predicting the future are two abilities that the character has already demonstrated in her versions. In the 1960s series, for example, Wandinha already appeared applying judo blows to her own father, Gomez. Not bad for a kid, is it?  

In The Addams Family 2, a 1994 film, the character has a nightmare while at the summer camp, indicating that she has supernatural powers of divination. In the 1977 special, she had already demonstrated such skills.

5 - Wandinhaverse

In the series Wednesday  the protagonist is played by Jenna Ortega, teen muse of horror films. Also in the series, Mrs. Thornhill is played by Christina Ricci, who played Wendy in classic 1990s movies.

6 - Where was the series recorded

The series was filmed in Romania. The set designers built Jericho around the idea of a New England town. Gothic architecture is very present and almost everything was actually built. Only a few touch-ups were done in CGI. In the set, one of the uses of CGI was for the roof of the high school so that it would look like the original Addams mansion.

7 - Cello

Jenna Ortega, our dear Wednesday, learned to play the cello just for the show. And she was very professional, right?

8 - The dance

To prepare for the dance scene at the school dance, Jenna watched videos of goths dancing in clubs in the '80s.

9 - Little hand

The person responsible for the interpretation of Mãozinha is called Victor Dorobantu and he didn't skimp on contortionism to deliver the realistic scenes seen in the series directed by Tim Burton. The actor, to live the character, dressed in a completely blue outfit, being digitally erased in post-production – with only his hand made up remaining.

10 - Because Wednesday and his family only wear black clothes

The director decided that her color palette would be exclusively black and white. In contrast, everyone around her would have color. This way, Wednesday and her family would always stand out. They loved the idea that her school uniform would be unique because everyone else is wearing a bright purple and she is wearing a black and white version. They always stand out from the crowd.

Official series trailer: