The Addams Family is a long-standing franchise that is as macabre as it is beloved. Naturally, Netflix’s Wednesday has brought the family back to the forefront in spectacular fashion, with hat-tips to the past left and right. However, it wouldn’t be its own creation if it didn’t take a few risks. Those risks began in Wednesday Season 1, with the introduction of Wednesday Addams’ powers. Those risks and changes continued into Season 2, with the conclusion adding a retcon to a character who has been around for 61 years. It’s not the sort of change fans could have predicted before this Season came around, but perhaps some sleuths put it together before Season 2 Part 2 dropped.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Thing has been a part of the Addams Family for as long as most of us can remember. That’s certainly the case for young Wednesday and Pugsley Addams, who never knew a life without Thing around. However, events of the Wednesday Season 2 finale make it clear that previous generations didn’t get to have the same relationship with Thing, as he joined the family around the same time as Gomez and Morticia. Yes, that’s right, the surprising retcon of the season revolves around none other than Thing.
Finally Getting His Own Origin Story
Wednesday Season 2 did more than retcon Thing’s past; it gave him his own origin story. It all begins with a man called Isaac Night, the inventor from the Nevermore legend, long buried, then turned zombie. Before his untimely death, Issac also had a backstory that ties to the Addams. He was once the best friend of Gomez, before he betrayed the young man. That betrayal cost him dearly, as is the fate for many who cross the Addams Family.
Notably, not all of Isaac paid the same price, as Morticia Frump (at the time) severed Issac’s hand moments before his death. This was the birth of the beloved character known as Thing. Thing woke up with no memories of his past or betrayal, so the family left it be. Right up until it got dug up, because again, this is the Addams Family we’re talking about.
Always Part of the Addams Family
You might be wondering how Thing got his name, and it turns out it’s actually an anagram. The pair took the last name Night and swapped it around to get Thing. The truth was in sight the whole time, if only we had thought to look at it that way.
Thing may have finally learned about his dark origin, but that will never define who this character is. He doesn’t need his body to feel whole, and he certainly doesn’t need Isaac Night. He has his found family, the Addams Family, and that’s the choice he’ll make every time.
Wednesday is available to stream on Netflix.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Focus Features.
