The subtle influence of Stephen King at the heart of Netflix’s Wednesday

Al Gough and Miles Millar’s “Wednesday” has carved out its own identity while remaining true to what the “Addams Family” franchise has always stood for. Additionally, Tim Burton’s enthusiastic involvement shaped the tone and aesthetic of the show, where the gothic gloom of gargoyles and graveyards often contrasts with bright, pop hues to subvert expectations. “Wednesday” piques our interest by taking a group of beloved characters and placing them in a tried-and-true YA setting – the protagonist enrolling in a fantasy boarding school filled with eccentric characters. Nevermore Academy may remind you of Hogwarts or Camp Half-Blood, but Millar insists that while these parallels may seem inevitable, the real inspiration behind “Wednesday” comes from popular tropes from Stephen King’s works (via The Hollywood Reporter):

“We have always loved the genre [YA] and “Harry Potter” and “Percy Jackson”, certainly, but, for us, Stephen King and Tim Burton [were the inspirations]because Tim wasn’t on the project when we started and created it. The Stephen King element of small towns and rampant teenage emotions felt like the elements that [we went for]and then [‘The Addams Family’ cartoonist] Charles Addams, so those were the things that really inspired us. It wasn’t an homage to ‘Percy Jackson’ or anything like that, or ‘Harry Potter,’ but as soon as you get to boarding school, the comparisons are there.”

This makes sense, as superficial parallels can easily be drawn between Nevermore and any fictional magic school, where everything from the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters (“X-Men”) to Brakebills University for Magic Education (“The Magicians”) might seem to fit. Stephen King’s influence, however, is deliberately woven into the series’ DNA and the way it brings the small and strange town of Jericho to life.

King’s horror stories are primarily set in small towns that emerge as characters in their own right, as these spaces take on a liminal quality that conveys unease. Perhaps the most enduring example is Derry, Maine (featured in “It,” “Insomnia” and “11/22/63”), but King also lends an otherworldly quality to places like Chester’s Mill or Castle Rock, where the veneer of quaint normalcy is disrupted by something horrific. Jericho seems to draw on this sentiment: it appears as a lush, sleepy city that wears its strange secrets on its sleeve, but hides a hideous underbelly that has claimed the lives of innocent teenagers for decades. Season 2 reinforces this with its big reveal about LOIS, as well as the fact that Nevermore’s magical gifts are no match for the evil forces lurking in the shadows.

Millar also mentions emotionally unstable adolescent characters in King’s works — the Losers Club from “It” obviously comes to mind, but there’s also Gordie LaChance from “The Body,” who revisits the frustrations and turmoil of his adolescence in this serious coming-of-age novel. “Wednesday” can also be seen through a coming-of-age lens, as it dramatizes adolescent growing pains in a supernaturally sensitive world, where every heightened emotion is further exacerbated by Jericho’s liminality. Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) may seem immune to this predicament, but her distant and reserved nature hides a deep vulnerability for those she cares about. Additionally, Wednesday is still operating as a teenager on the fringes of societal expectations – a true outcast among outcasts – which puts her in a unique position in relation to the events of the series.

Hopefully there will be more Stephen King-inspired influences in the upcoming third season of “Wednesday.”