The biggest teacher twist from Wednesday season 1 was cribbed straight from Professor Quirrell’s big twist in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Wednesday Addams has been an iconic character for decades, but Jenna Ortega’s performance in the Netflix spin-off series introduced her to a whole new generation and took her to a whole new level of iconography. When Wednesday season 1 premiered on the streaming service in 2022, it quickly amassed a giant fan base and became one of Netflix’s most-watched original shows.
Wednesday is the latest installment in the long-running Addams Family franchise, and it borrows a lot from previous Addams Family movies and TV shows. But it arguably borrows even more from a different beloved fantasy franchise. As the story of a lonely kid with magical abilities who goes to a specialty school for supernatural students, Wednesday has an almost identical premise to the Harry Potter series. One twist in particular — the bombshell final twist from Wednesday season 1 — is taken straight from Harry’s first adventure.
Wednesday Season 1 Copies Harry Potter’s Big Teacher Twist
The Nice Teacher Turns Out To Be The Villain
The biggest twist at the end of Wednesday season 1 is the same as the final twist from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Throughout most of the series, Wednesday and Enid’s dorm mother at Nevermore Academy — Marilyn Thornhill, played by previous Wednesday actor Christina Ricci — is shown to be one of the nicest and most unsuspicious teachers at the school. But in the season 1 finale, Thornhill is revealed to be the villainous Laurel Gates, the big bad of the series.
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Professor Quirinus Quirrell is similarly shown to be kind and unsuspicious — and he’s similarly revealed to be the villain. In the third act of the movie, Quirrell is revealed to have a weakened Lord Voldemort living on the back of his head, controlling his actions. Much like Quirrell, Thornhill is the last person anyone would expect to be the bad guy all along, which is what makes the twist reveal so surprising.
Netflix’s Wednesday Borrows Many Other Elements From Harry Potter Too
The Horrible Teacher Turns Out To Be Good, Too
Thornhill isn’t the only character from Wednesday whose arc is borrowed from Harry Potter. In Harry Potter, not only is the nicest teacher revealed to be the bad guy; the most horrible teacher is revealed to be a good guy. Severus Snape is the mean-spirited teacher who turns out to have a heart of gold. This is similar to Wednesday’s Principal Larissa Weems, who also seems evil but is actually really sweet. Like Snape, Weems also has a personal connection to the protagonist’s parents, having roomed with Morticia Addams at Nevermore.
