Director Tim Burton is no stranger to the macabre and gothic – this is the man, after all, that brought to life goth classics The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, and Corpse Bride. So it wasn’t that surprising when he signed on to do Wednesday, the Addams Family spinoff.
Turns out Burton really connected to the project, and to its script. In an interview with Empire, Burton explained why he finally took it on. And this isn’t the first time Burton has tried to bring the famous spooky family to life, either.
Back in 2010, Burton was in the beginning stages of making a stop-motion Addams Family movie. “That never really went anywhere. I was intrigued by it,” he said, “but I think they wanted to go a more computer-generated way.”
When he read the script for Wednesday that changed. “[It] just spoke to me about how I felt in school and how you feel about your parents, how you feel as a person. It gave the Addams Family a different kind of reality. It was an interesting combination.”
Wednesday is played by Jenna Ortega, and the plot centers around her experience at a boarding school. But Burton said Wednesday’s issues in the script reminded him of his own high school problems.
“In 1976, I went to a high-school prom. It was the year Carrie came out. I felt like a male Carrie at that prom. I felt that feeling of having to be there but not be part of it. They don’t leave you, those feelings, as much as you want them to go.”
He also said that he shares “the same worldview” as the character and if he met her back then they would have been kindred spirits.
You’ll get to see all the angst for yourself when Wednesday premieres on Netflix on Nov. 23.