Writing Analysis
Why “Wednesday” Couldn’t Exist Without “Harry Potter”
I ended up watching “Wednesday” in two days, which is surprising given I found it cringey. Horror-lite for people who didn’t normally consume horror or any sort of dark fantasy. The best actor was a severed hand, Thing.
But I couldn’t turn the show off because it was a revival of my favorite childhood story, the seven-book series that turned me into a reader, and eventually a writer: Harry Potter.
“Wednesday” and “Harry Potter”
Wednesday Addams transfers to Nevermore, a school for outcasts, which means monsters, witches, and everything in between. Finally, she’s somewhere she belongs. Or is she?
Despite being an outcast like everyone else, Wednesday sticks out. “That snarky goth thing might’ve worked at normie school,” her bubbly werewolf roommate, Enid, quickly calls out, but Nevermore kids know that being an outcast (in the show’s sense of the world) isn’t an excuse to act like an outcast (in a more typical sense of the word).
Wednesday quickly becomes an outcast in a school of outcasts, the same way Harry quickly finds out he can never “just fit in” at Hogwarts, due to his legendary name. But the similarities don’t end there.
I would’ve thought that a show that revamps the iconic The Addams Family, with heavy tributes to the canonical American horror writer Edgar Allan Poe would have no need to reach further for reference material. It turns out, Poe’s works provide window dressing and The Addams Family characters, but the foundation is unmistakably Harry Potter. Without the magical heptalogy, Wednesday simply would not function.
Here are five major ways in which Wednesday borrows from Harry Potter:
1. An elusive big bad evil terrorizes the school, and the headstrong protagonist believes it is his/her duty to defeat it due to a prophecy
In Harry Potter, the protagonist sounded nuts when he insisted the strange happenings around the school were due to an evil wizard that had been dead for over a decade. But Harry persisted, breaking rules to track down the big bad evil and prove his point. As the Boy Who Lived, he felt a sense of obligation to take down the sorcerer who killed his parents and nearly destroyed the world. He was certain Voldemort’s return had something to do with his first year at Hogwarts.
In Wednesday, the protagonist similarly is doubted and even mocked for insisting that there’s a monster on the prowl. By the end of the first episode, she’s the only one who witnesses it, other than the boy the monster kill. But when that boy shows up at school, rumors fly that Wednesday’s lost it, or at least is attention-hungry. Despite everyone telling her to back off, Wednesday doggedly tracks down leads to figure out what — and who — the monster is. She’s certain the monster is tracking her because of a prophecy that she believes says she’s meant to save the school.
2. Four houses
Where Harry Potter formally divided the school population into four houses, Wednesday informally divides the school population by outcast type: furs (werewolves), stoners (gorgons, who wear beanies), scales (sirens), and fangs(vampires, who wear shades). Not everyone fits neatly into a category. There’s Wednesday for example. (I’m still not sure what she is. Something vaguely undead.) There’s also the big bad monster of the series, which turns out to be not a werewolf.
3. A helpful uncle who’s on the run from the law
Where Harry Potter had Sirius Black, Wednesday has Uncle Fray. Both are fugitives hiding on campus and uncle figures to the protagonists: Uncle Fray and Wednesday are related by blood, while Sirius Black was Harry’s godfather and his father’s best friend.
4. The tournament at the lake
Where Harry Potter had a mermaid challenge during the Triwizard Tournament, Wednesday has a boat race — also with mermaids (sirens) scheming to sabotage the competition.
5. Battle of Hogwarts/Nevermore
(spoiler)
Left without principal, the students fend for themselves. Taking down the big bad evil is a joint effort where various students get to show off their talents and admirable characters.
6. Secret societies, neighboring towns, and more
Where Harry Potter had Dumbledore’s Army, Wednesday has the Nightshades, who also meet in a secret room (the Room of Requirement vs. the secret library) and a very important item (the Mirror of Erised vs. Faulkner’s diary). Dumbledore’s Army was obviously more substantial than the social club that Nightshades atrophied into, but the Nightshades end up banding together in the final battle for the school, the same way Dumbledore’s Army used skills they taught each other during training to save Hogwarts.
Where Harry Potter had Hogsmeade, Wednesday has Jericho. Hogsmeade was also magical, where Jericho is for normies (muggles). Hogsmeade was a fun place to catch a breather from academic life, whereas Jericho has tensions with Nevermore. Still, both serve as off-campus locations to bring in new characters and serve as important settings for key plot points.
There’s also the school dance. Every book, film, and show set in a school needs to have a dance. Harry Potter had the Yule ball. Wednesday had a Carrie tribute with a viral dance sequence.
The enduring legacy of Harry Potter
I watched the final movie Harry Potter movie by myself. I was in New York City, the largest city in America, and the theater was packed. In a sense, this was great: I was able to squeeze into the perfect spot, the middle of the middle of the theater, between a group of friends and a couple. On the other hand, it felt a bit lonely.
At the same time, I found it fitting that the journey I started by myself would be one I ended by myself, too. Even though Harry Potter was and still is a global phenomenon, my connection to it feels deeply personal. Even though I’ve watched the movies and been to the theme park with friends, in the same way some of my friends ditch Sunday service to study the Bible in the quiet of their homes, my connection to the wizarding world always will be rooted in poring over the books late at night by myself. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t help but root for Wednesday Addams, an outcast in a school of outcasts.
But in that theater thirteen years ago, watching the Deathly Hallows Part 2 by myself, I wasn’t alone: I had the theater around me, gasping, clapping, crying. Somehow in being alone, in pursuing something that was meaningful to me personally, I found connection to a world of strangers.
Ever since then, I’ve been chasing that high. Hunger Games. Divergent. Percy Jackson. Teen and new adults fantasy franchises might’ve quieted but by no means have they died down; Fate: the Winx Saga and Shadow & Bones are just two examples that come to mind. But the impact of Harry Potter extends beyond fantasy, as far as into novels like K-Pop Confidential, in which the protagonist, Candace, a newcomer to a near-magical academy of K-Pop trainees, has her own Ron and Hermione, two best friends who help with their unique skills and intellect.
Wednesday provided that high — and community — I’ve been chasing since the Harry Potter movies ended. Everyone was buzzing about the show, even if they couldn’t see the connection to Harry Potter. At the very least, my screenwriting class gave it rave reviews after we were assigned a few episodes to watch. As cringey as I found Wednesday, I found it nostalgic.
