Wednesday Is Officially Bringing The Addams Family Into A Brand New Era
Wednesday season 3 is all set up to carry The Addams Family into a new era—but is that a good thing? Of course, in many ways, Tim Burton's Netflix series has already done as much. The Addams Family started out as a series of comic strips in the in 1930s before evolving into a sitcom television show in the 1960s. The decades since have brought live-action and animated films aplenty, all of which revolved around the titular family as a whole. Wednesday, as the title overtly suggests, is the first to centralize the kooky first daughter.
While Addams Family fans were a bit weary of Wednesday, approval for the spinoff series has been relatively high. The creators have shown a great deal of respect toward the source material, and, even better, waves of new young viewers have found their way to sitcom reruns, the '90s Addams Family movies, and several of the newer animated additions. It's been a sort of resurrection, and the upcoming Wednesday season 3 will keep the ball rolling.
The trouble is that the focus of this upcoming installment in Netflix's Addams Family spinoff could have major implications for the franchise as a whole. Star Jenna Ortega has teased that Wednesday season 3 will follow her character through her senior year at Nevermore Academy as she begins to make plans for the next stage of her life. The idea is that the spinoff show will actually carry Wednesday into adulthood, and that really complicates The Addams Family's future.
Wednesday's Timeline Could Change The Addams Family Franchise Forever
The Addams Family has been around for close to 100 years. However, the characters have remained largely suspended in time. Sure, different iterations place the Addamses in different points in history, depending on when the show or movie came out. Wednesday follows a teenage Wednesday in the 2020s, while the Addams Family sitcom made Wednesday a child in the middle of the 20th century. However, never before has Wednesday ever been made an adult in any lasting way.
While old reunion specials for the original black-and-white TV show brought Wednesday back as an adult, the tradition has generally been that this character always goes back to being a kid. Wednesday is now teetering on the edge of something very different. If this character is contemplating her future outside of school, and Netflix has shown no real sign that Wednesday is going to end with season 3, it seems implied that the show is preparing to launch the Addams Family into a new era. The characters are being moved off their stagnant timeline.
While it would be fun to see Ortega's Wednesday set out into the wider world as an adult novelist or detective, it has to be considered what breaking The Addams Family out of its Simpsons-like timeline would mean for the franchise's future. For nearly 100 years, these characters have been respected within their intended environment. It's a family that never changes, regardless of the decade. Without those parameters, it may be harder for future adaptations to drag things back to square one again.
Creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar already have a new animated film in the works, this time featuring the Addams Family in their more traditional dynamic. The unfortunate truth here is that such a project is unlikely ever to be as big asWednesday. This Netflix series is extremely trendy. Ortega is an absolute star. The more traditional horror elements takeThe Addams Familyto another level. Going back to regular children's animation just won't satisfy the trajectory, especially if Wednesday carries the titular character into more adult adventures. Netflix will simply have to be careful.