Wednesday creators point out a major way they wanted to differ from the Harry Potter universe 

The creators of Netflix’s Wednesday, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, made a deliberate choice to present the Addams family world in a way that stands apart from the hidden-magic approach of the Harry Potter universe.

According to Variety, the two explained that while many supernatural stories keep magical elements concealed from the general public, they wanted the supernatural world in Wednesday to be

“out in the open.”

In Harry Potter, the wizarding world exists alongside the Muggle world, but is invisible to it. In contrast, Wednesday shows outcasts, individuals with supernatural abilities, living and interacting in full view of normies, the term used for non-magical people in the series.

The creators said that Season 1 explored how outcasts fit into a normie world, while Season 2 takes the idea further by showing what happens when tensions rise between the two groups.

This creative decision significantly influences the conflict in Season 2, including the introduction of the secret Long-term Outcast Integration Study (L.O.I.S.) at Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, which is utilized to exploit outcasts’ abilities. It also frames the different philosophies of the characters in Nevermore and Jericho, and how their relationships shift in response to these tensions.

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Keeping the supernatural visible in Wednesday

Gough told Variety:

“In ‘Harry Potter,’ nobody knows about the magic world in the muggle world. We wanted it out in the open, but then, what is the next iteration of that? How would people actually respond and react?”

Season 1 introduced Principal Weems, whose approach was to help outcasts fit into a normie society. In Season 2, Principal Dort, played by Steve Buscemi, takes the opposite stance. According to Gough, Dort is “very pro-outcast” and believes in closing ranks after the events involving Tyler, the Hyde from Season 1.

The existing détente between Jericho and Nevermore collapses, and Dort focuses on supporting outcasts exclusively.

The opposing philosophy is embodied at Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, where Judi Stonehurst runs the L.O.I.S. program. Posing as an assistant to the head doctor, she secretly works to extract abilities from outcasts and give them to normies. This public coexistence of normies and outcasts, combined with such exploitation, is a direct outcome of making the supernatural visible.

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Conflict between integration and exploitation

According to the interview, Season 2 also explores how this open coexistence can be manipulated. Gough explained,

“That idea of exploiting — you know, Wednesday’s exploiting her powers, which is why they’ve gone horribly awry for her. And there’s people exploiting outcasts.”

Even characters who claim to be supportive, like Dort, are shown to use others for their purposes. Dort, for example, exploits Bianca, a Nevermore student, despite his pro-outcast stance.

This mirrors a personal storyline for Wednesday herself. She begins the season overusing her psychic powers, leading to fainting spells and black tears. Her mother, Morticia, warns her that she is pushing herself too far, based on her sister Ophelia’s experience. Eventually, Wednesday loses her psychic ability altogether.

By tying together these personal and systemic forms of exploitation, the creators use the open supernatural world to show how abilities can be both celebrated and abused in public view.

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Expanding the setting beyond the school

Millar said the decision to keep the supernatural world visible also gave them more opportunities to take the story outside of Nevermore Academy. This includes settings like Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital, which he described as a “kooky, Addams-y” space but also a harsh prison.

Keeping outcasts and normies in the same visible world allowed for complex storylines involving Tyler Galpin. Tyler, revealed as the Hyde in Season 1, is now an inmate at Willow Hill. Sheriff Galpin, his father, was investigating L.O.I.S. in an attempt to protect Tyler before being killed. Millar explained that they wanted to keep Tyler in the story because his relationship with Wednesday is

“complex and interesting.”

The open-world approach makes Tyler’s storyline more layered. Wednesday sees him as irredeemable, but his father believes there is still good in him. This tension plays out in a shared world where their actions and the actions of others are visible to both normies and outcasts.

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One major way Wednesday sets itself apart from Harry Potter is by asking: if the supernatural world were public, what would people really do with it?