WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Wednesday season 1!Wednesday featured a clever Easter egg to Tim Burton’s cult classic movie Beetlejuice, but the lighting of the scene largely hid the reference. Netflix’s Wednesday is filled with Easter eggs and references to past adaptations of The Addams Family, horror movies like Carrie, and Tim Burton’s iconic filmography. While some of Wednesday’s Easter eggs are easier to spot, others became obscured in darker lighting, but Netflix’s official production images help clarify the presence of the series’ subtle movie references.
One of the best Easter eggs regarding Tim Burton’s 1988 horror-comedy Beetlejuice was featured in Wednesday season 1, episode 7. When Tyler and Wednesday are watching the “horror movie” Legally Blonde at Crackstone’s Crypt, the duo are eating popcorn from white-and-black striped bags, which mimic the design of Beetlejuice’s iconic striped suit. Since the lighting in Wednesday’s episode is much darker than in production images, the contrast of the white and black stripes appears more gray, thus losing the effect of the Beetlejuice design on the popcorn bags. Considering Tyler and Wednesday were watching a movie in a crypt, which is similar to the cemetery Beetlejuice frequented, Wednesday’s Tim Burton Easter egg was particularly fitting.
Wednesday’s Other Tim Burton Easter Eggs Explained
The hidden popcorn bags are just one of Wednesday’s many Easter eggs aimed at Tim Burton’s past projects, including a Beetlejuice-inspired shrunken head in Principal Weems' office. Wednesday’s production designer Mark Scruton told Netflix’s Tudum that the crew tried to stuff the series full of Tim Burton Easter eggs, hoping there would be some that even the filmmaker wouldn’t spot. The majority of the Tim Burton Easter eggs are found at the Weathervane Café in Jericho, as the weathervanes on the coffee shop’s back wall feature designs based on his movies. Such references include the headless horseman from Sleepy Hollow (starring Wednesday's Marilyn Thornhill actress Christina Ricci) and Willy Wonka’s hat from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Netflix’s Addams Family TV show also has clever Easter eggs from Tim Burton’s past movies at Uriah’s Heap in Jericho. As Enid and Ajax brush the fur of the stuffed roadkill, Wednesday reveals that some of the mice are dressed up as celebrities or movie characters. In addition to mice dressed as Elvis, Evel Knievel, and Freddy Krueger, Netflix’s production designer explains that a few of the animals in the taxidermy shop are wearing costumes based on Tim Burton characters. In an interesting paradox, this suggests that Tim Burton exists within Wednesday, and clearly has an unspoken influence on the town of Jericho.
Wednesday’s Monster Brings Back Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Style
As Beetlejuice explored the afterlife and the terrifying transformations of ghosts to scare the living, Tim Burton created some bizarre monster designs. One design from Beetlejuice is strikingly reminiscent of Tyler’s Hyde monster in Wednesday. The big eyes, wild hair, and sharp teeth of the Hyde resemble the scary snake that Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice turns into when proving to Adam and Barbara that he can frighten the Deetz family out of their house. While this similarity is most likely coincidental, Wednesday’s monster design refreshingly brings back the brilliantly wacky style of Tim Burton’s scariest creatures from the 1980s.