Showrunners Miles Millar and Al Gough on Their New Series, ‘Wednesday’

Miles Millar and Al Gough — best known to NOC readers as the creators of Smallville and Into the Badlands — serve as the showrunners, executive producers, and writers for Wednesday. The show premieres November 23, only on Netflix. This year, at New York Comic Con, I spoke with both of them during a roundtable interview.

The series is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.

We discussed bringing these iconic characters to a new generation and the unique direction they decided to take with the story.

“For us, it was showing Wednesday as a teenager, showing her in boarding school, away from her family, but a boarding school that still had that sort of ‘Addams’ vibe,” Gough told me. “She’s a young woman who likes who she is, knows who she is, and says what she wants. She’s very much a truth-teller and I think that’s something that’s important to put out there today. Between us, we have four teenage daughters, so it’s just something that’s a good role model to see on television.”

“Which is ironic considering it’s Wednesday Addams, but she actually is because I think she’s someone who is very comfortable with herself. I think in the show she does evolve, but a lot of shows and books about teen girls, they start as like a little meek, and then they blossom into butterflies or it’s about a boy romance and she’s not that. She’s unapologetically smart, fearless, says what she thinks, and is also weird and loves all those things,” Millar explained. “She’s a really strong female role model and I think that was, as fathers and daughters, really important to put out in the world. Also, it’s funny, so I think people are dying for something that’s funny and the humor may be black, but it’s still something that I think seeing a girl who’s funny, smart, and weird is really good and we’re pretty happy to put that into the world.”