Whether you do it in a book, movie, or TV series, crafting a whodunit (a murder investigation story) is never easy. Authors have to make sure that 100% of the story checks out, especially for spectators who feel like experiencing your work more than once. OnWednesday, showrunnersAl GoughandMiles Millarhad the task of making the audience curious as to who (or what) was killing the Nevermore students, and they decided to put all cards on the table and leave nothing hanging mystery-wise by the end of Season 1.
In an interview toThe Hollywood Reporter, the duo of series creators revealed that they wanted the first eight episodes to feel “complete and really satisfying.” That way, they can start a whole new mystery in the next season without having to look back at the questions from Season 1. During the interview, Millar broke down how the mystery of the series' freshman year was mapped out:
“It was actually much more complicated and difficult than we anticipated just in terms that you wanna make sure that if you look back at the show that there are no loose ends. There’s no — we call it ‘Fight Club’ moments — where it’s like, ‘Well, that couldn’t have happened.’ It was definitely a jigsaw puzzle. And so we had all eight episodes complete, and then we could really make sure that all the red herrings were there, and it felt like a complete mystery, but then we didn’t know it was gonna work until an actual audience saw it. So, it’s actually a real nail-biter when you do a whodunit because it could be so obvious. […] But it’s so gratifying to hear that people were really into the mystery, and the red herrings were working. It could be that person. It could be that person. Misdirect. So that’s literally the most satisfying thing about the show for us. It’s the thing we were most worried about.”
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In the second half ofWednesday, Gough and Millar had make viewers suspect several characters at once before they finally revealed that Tyler (Hunter Doohan) was the one killing students. But not only that, the duo added another layer to the twist, by revealing that the boy was being controlled by an evil person who specialized in eliminating outcasts. Gough also broke down the duo’s thought process, and commented how satisfying it felt when it all worked perfectly:
“It was just always having enough red herrings. It was like, once you kind of figure out the mystery, that you could actually say, ‘Here’s the mystery’ in a couple of lines, then it was how you could complicate it. As Miles said, it’s one thing to do it on the page, but then once you get into the casting, and then once you’re shooting it, there were a couple times where we would go back and sort of add a few other little touches to scenes or other things to make sure that the arrows weren’t suddenly pointing to one person or another.”
Wednesday featuresJenna Ortegaas the title character,Catherine Zeta-Jonesas Morticia Addams,Luis Guzmánas Gomez Addams,Isaac Ordonezas Wednesday’s younger brother Pugsley,Fred Armisenas Uncle Fester,Christina Riccias Marilyn Thornhill,George Burceaas Lurch,Gwendoline Christieas Principal Larissa Weems,Riki Lindhomeas Dr. Valerie Kinbott,Jamie McShaneas Sheriff Donovan Galpin, andJoy Sundayas Bianca Barclay.
You can stream all episodes ofWednesdayon Netflix now. Check out the trailer for the series below:
