Not even a month has passed since Wednesday premiered on Netflix, and yet the series is already making history: it became the most watched English-language production in its first week and the second most watched in the platform’s history. This series following the much-loved character from The Addams Family was created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and marked director Tim Burton’s long-awaited return to television, not only as director, but also as executive producer.
The cast of Wednesday stars the impeccable Jenna Ortega, alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman, Gwendoline Christie, Fred Armisen, and Christina Ricci, known for her iconic portrayal of the character in the 1991 and 1993 films. Tim Burton, Gandja Monteiro and James Marshall helmed the eight episodes of the first season. In them, the audience follows Wednesday as she attends Nevermore Academy, a school for outcasts, trying to solve a murder spree that haunts the town while dealing with her new psychic abilities, her teenage years, and her evolving relationships with her family and her new classmates. The series was well-received by audiences and critics alike, and has already landed two Golden Globe nominations in the categories of Best TV Series and Best Actress for Musical or Comedy (for Ortega).
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The vast majority of Wednesday’s events take place at Nevermore Academy and in the town of Jericho, which eventually becomes a major part of the main character’s story. But does this town really exist, or was it created for the show?
Jericho’s Relevance to The Story
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After taking revenge on her brother Pugsley’s bullies by tossing piranhas into the pool they were in, Wednesday is kicked out of her school and forced by her parents to attend the infamous Nevermore Academy, the same school Morticia and Gomez went to in their youth. Of course, Wednesday has no interest in staying at this facility, and from the very moment she sets foot in it, she starts thinking of a way to escape. Eventually, she finds another interest: solving the murder spree that plagues the school and the town where it is located, Jericho.
In the series, Jericho is a small town in New England founded by Joseph Crackstone, leader of the former pilgrims. In the present day, the residents of Jericho and the students of Nevermore Academy revere Crackstone, although many are unaware of this figure’s real story with the outcasts and his connection to the Addams family.
Being one of the main locations of Wednesday, throughout its run, we get to see several landmarks of the town. These include the café where Tyler works, the office of Dr. Valerie Kinbott, Wednesday’s therapist, and even the amusement park named Pilgrim World, which honors the town’s history. However, when Wednesday pays a mandatory visit to Pilgrim World with the rest of the Nevermore students, she finds out that the place is merely a money-making attraction, and, unlike what they claim in the park, both the people working there and the items they keep in the museum are replicas and not originals.
Is Jericho a Real Town?
The town of Jericho depicted in Wednesday is not real, but it has been based on some real places, among them, Jericho town in Vermont. This place was named after the Palestinian city of the same name located in the West Bank, one of the oldest cities in the world and a place of great cultural and historical importance. Jericho is a name with an important presence in the Bible, as it is the city through which the Israelites entered the Promised Land. For that reason, Jericho has inspired the naming of many, many cities around the world. Unlike the town featured on Wednesday, which was settled by Joseph Crackstone in 1625, the original residents of Jericho, Vermont were the Browns, a European family who settled there in 1774. Currently, the town has a population of 5,104.
Where Was Wednesday Filmed?
Although the town shown in Wednesday is inspired by Jericho, Vermont, the series was not filmed there. Originally, the production was supposed to be shot in Toronto, Canada, but eventually the idea was dropped, as they were looking for a location that would better match Tim Burton’s vision for the show and his dark, gothic style. Ultimately, the chosen location for Wednesday was Romania, and most of the shooting took place in the city of Bucharest and the region of Transylvania (per Marie Claire). The village that you see in Wednesday, however, was built at Buftea Studios, a film studio located in Romania that has witnessed the filming of more than 600 film and TV productions. There, they built out the sets for the town café, Pilgrim World, the sheriff’s office and Jericho’s town square, among many other locations. To create Nevermore Academy, they drew inspiration from Cantacuzino Castle, which was built in 1911 by politician Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino. However, in order to transform the site into the school for outcasts that serves as a home for Wednesday, Enid and the rest of the students, they used CGI.
