All of Wednesday Season 2 is streaming now, and Nevermore Academy is bursting with more secrets than ever before. Wednesday Addams’ stomping grounds are sprawling and mysterious, and within them, keen viewers will spot a treasure trove of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it details, but we’ve kept our eyes peeled so you don’t have to. See above for a video revealing Season 2’s new Easter eggs, which include Edgar Allan Poe references, a look at how Enid runs like a werewolf, and some seriously creepy dolls. Read on for the Easter eggs from the frightful first season.
“There’s Tim Burton Easter eggs, there’s Addams Family Easter eggs, and there’s clues to the mystery of the show,” production designer Mark Scruton tells Tudum. “We [tried to] give subtle clues as to the course of the storyline, even printing things [on] the wallpapers of the rooms.” So keep an eye on the background, because even the walls of Wednesday have their secrets. With the help of Scruton, we can give you some hints, of course. But to truly understand Nevermore Academy, you’ll have to experience it for yourself.
The first Easter egg at Nevermore in Season 1 comes soon after you enter its halls. Like any school, this one has cliques, and the school’s architecture reflects them. “All the gargoyles, they designed [them] to represent the different groups within the schools,” Scruton explains. “So there’s vampires and gorgons and sirens.”
With a cast of characters as iconic as the Addamses, there had to be a few allusions to their family history. “Everything informed us to an extent and we put little nods to that in there,” Scruton says. “So we spent a long time trying to source the stuffed bear which ends up in Larissa’s office, which is referencing the [1960s] TV show.” And when Wednesday discovers a top-secret library in the depths of Nevermore, there’s even more to explore. “The wicker seat that they sit in, we’ve tucked that into one of the black-and-white photos in the library,” Scruton says. Eagle-eyed viewers may spot a few more details — namely a certain hirsute cousin, among others.
The Addams Family tree stretches further back than just the classic television series and 1990s films, of course. The production design team went straight to the source: Charles Addams’ original Addams Family comic strips. “Obviously we looked at the Charles Addams illustrations and I pulled a lot of stuff out of there that we’ve built into Jericho,” Scruton says, referring to Nevermore’s neighboring suburb. “So a lot of the storefronts in Jericho are referenced off of little incidental moments in those Charles Addams cartoons. There’s a florist’s shop and a cobbler’s shop and a thrift store that I think feature quite heavily in a few of those editions.” Another thing in the quaint village to look out for? The glass door of Wednesday’s therapist’s office bears the names of showrunners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough.
Wednesday director Tim Burton provided a final opportunity for art designers to smuggle in some canny references. “Sometimes subtle, sometimes quite in-your-face,” Scruton notes with a laugh. “It’s always a fine line on those because you don’t want to end up right behind someone’s shoulder in a shot. But they’re all there. In the taxidermy [shop] Uriah’s Heap, we [have] little mice that reflected some of Tim’s movies that you might be able to spot.” (There’s also a rodent version of Freddy Krueger.)
Burton, for his part, approved of the in-jokes — when he spotted them. “A lot of the subtler stuff we just dropped in there and hoped he wouldn’t notice,” Scruton says. “He spotted most of it and it was fine.” Consider this a challenge: Can you find as many Easter eggs in Wednesday as Tim Burton?
Rewatch the Season 1 Easter eggs video below.
