The producing and writing partnership of Miles Miller and Alfred Gough were the minds behind shows like Into the Badlands, and, most famously, Smallville. Since 2022, they’ve relaunched the Addams Family franchise, giving it new life with to Netflix’s megahit Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega. Ahead of the second season, we chatted with the duo about diving into a new season-long mystery, the addition of new characters to Nevermore Academy, and one very Tim Burton stop-motion sequence in episode one of Wednesday season two.
Nerdist: There’s a very cool stop-motion sequence in season two of Wednesday, which feels particularly Tim Burton-esque. Did that come from you two, or was that all a Burton decision?
Miles Miller: No, it was our idea. It was something that we had written, the idea that Ajax is telling this story to a bunch of kids in a dorm room, and we wrote it out just like he was saying the story was. And it was like, “We need to visualize this somehow.” And then we thought, let’s just do it as a regular flashback. It felt like if we ever were going to do something crazy and expensive, do it now. And we’d always been fascinated, and obviously, we thought Tim would love it, this idea of doing a stop motion sequence. Because it’s incredibly expensive and time-consuming. So it actually took nine months to complete that sequence. It’s 60 seconds long.
We asked the same team who did Corpse Bride, McKinnon and Saunders, who are this amazing British stop motion company out of the north of England. And it really elevates the episode, and it’s so beautiful, so exquisite. It feels like a mini movie within the show. And Tim was all over it, and he loved the idea. And actually he designed something in it. We walk into his trailer, and there’s this little Tupperware box inside, and in this nest of cotton balls is this little plaster head that Tim has made over the weekend. And it has paperclip hair, and that’s the Clockwork Boy. And that was the beginning of that. So it really is a signature moment in the show and very, very Tim.
The adults have a lot more to do this season than in season one. Was it always the plan to ultimately have them more involved in Wednesday’s day-to-day life in season two?
Alfred Gough: It was. Again, we wanted to explore the family, but do it in a way that felt organic to our story. So bringing them in, and also Pugsley, obviously a student, and then giving Morticia this job as the chairperson for the Nevermore gala, that was a way to have her around. And then we could explore the complications that brings to Wednesday and her relationship. But it did allow us to kind of delve deeper into the Addams family.
Pugsley has never received as much love and attention as Wednesday as a character in the franchise, but in season two of Wednesday, he gets a lot more fleshed out. Was Pugsley’s glow-up always part of the mission statement for season two?
Miles Miller: Very much so. We agree. Pugsley has always been an afterthought, or sort of in the background, so we thought, wouldn’t it be fun to see him front and center and give him his own story? Especially with the zombie at the end of the first episode, which really triggers the story of the season. So I think Isaac Ordonez does such an amazing job. I mean, he has the face of an Addams character, as if drawn by Charles Addams, and he brings such fun and mischief and humanity to the role. So we really lucked out there.
I won’t give too much away here, but there is a “Wednesday goes to summer camp” element this season that provides some fun story beats. What do you think it is about seeing the Addams clan in a camp environment that tickles us so much?
Alfred Gough: Well, it sure does. I mean, it’s our homage to Addams Family Values, which was the camp scene with Pugsley. And Wednesday was definitely the highlight of that film. And we were like, well, what if there was a high school camp day, and what would that bring? So I think for us it was just the idea of seeing them in that environment again, I don’t know, it’s just “the Addams in nature, fish out of water” again.
Miles Miller: And I think Colleen Atwood, who’s our amazing costume designer, had a ball with the costumes, and we built the Adams Family Mansion as a tent. It was just a blast in terms of seeing them out in the great outdoors.
Wednesday has always been horror adjacent, but this season has some truly dark, genuinely scary stuff. What made you decide to go from just spooky to truly scary in Wednesday season two?
Alfred Gough: Well, we wanted to evolve the show, and I think for us it was a natural step. And again, I think it’s scary. We don’t get too scary, but it is definitely scarier. And I think especially when you get into the fourth episode, it kind of lent itself to that kind of genre.
You both also came up with new breeds of outcast this season. Was that challenging for you guys to come up with newer, even weirder beings?
Miles Miller: It was fun for us to come up with. I think the wonderful thing about having a hit show is you have the range to do more stuff. So in season one, we were very limited in terms of budget and what we could do. And this season, we could let our imaginations fly, and had a chance to actually use the visual effects and the budget we had to make those things a reality. Things we always wanted to do and couldn’t afford. We could do all of those this season.
Wednesday Addams is really embracing her psychic powers this season, but she’s also a bit in over her head. This is a Wednesday that needs to get over her pride a little bit, and ask for help. Did you always see that as part of her character growth?
Miles Miller: Yeah, I think that’s something that we definitely saw as an evolution of her character. And she’s a deeply flawed character, and she lives with such certainty, she thinks she’s in control, and she’s not. I think that’s sort of in terms of a season, her arc was very interesting. And it certainly would put her in conflict with those who are trying to help, and she’s refusing help. So it’s a character that feels, in many ways, not a teenager, yet in many ways, she still is. And this felt like a really relatable way to tell that story.
Joanna Lumley from Absolutely Fabulous is brilliantly cast for Grandmamma this season. Although it was weird hearing her with an American accent. She’s probably the most different from her classic Addams Family persona. What were your inspirations for this new version of the character?
Miles Miller: Well, certainly Joanna was actually the first person that we thought about because we were trying to think who would be the perfect mother to Catherine Zeta Jones. You got one Academy Award-winning and iconic Morticia. And Joanna just felt like, “Oh yeah, that’s the perfect person.” I think there’s such a style that Joanna brings, and sophistication. And then that inspiration for The Bride of Frankenstein wig. So it just felt like they fit together. It really does feel like a family that they are all a part of. And they’re all formidable.
Now that we’ve met Grandmama, will we ever learn who Grandpapa is? I feel like that’s something that no Addams Family piece of media has dealt with. Have you ever thought of who Wednesday’s grandfather might be?
Alfred Gough: We have. It’s something we definitely want to explore down the road. That’s the great thing with the Addams Family. Even though we all know them, we don’t really know much about them, and it really is kind of a blank slate. So it’s been really wonderful to be able to kind of explore their dynamics, a family that loves each other, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have conflict and family secrets.
Part one of Wednesday season two is now streaming on Netflix.
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