'Wednesday' Series Nears 1 Billion Streams, May Bolster Westfield's AddamsFest

WESTFIELD, NJ — Netflix's new series "Wednesday," which has ties to Westfield, is breaking viewing records, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The show that follows a teenage Wednesday Addams scored the most viewing time in a single week for an English-language series on Netflix in the week of Nov. 28 to Dec. 4, The Hollywood Reporter stated. The creator of Westfield's AddamsFest, Councilwoman Dawn Mackey, said she hopes the success of the show will bring more publicity and attention to the annual festival.

Only 12 days since its release, "Wednesday" is currently No. 3 in Netflix's all-time ranking of English-language series with 752.52 million hours viewed. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it will likely pass "Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" 856.22 million hours) in the coming week.

The new series has a chance of becoming the third Netflix show in any language to pass a billion hours of watch time in its first four weeks, joining "Squid Game" (1.65 billion hours) and season four of "Stranger Things" (1.35 billion).

The original Addams Family cartoon was famously created by Westfield resident Charles Addams in the 1930s. To honor Addams' legacy, for the past five years Westfield has hosted AddamsFest throughout the month of October.

The festival includes tons of spooky-themed events — from a "haunting your house" decorating contest to a masquerade ball.

Read more: Westfield's AddamsFest To Include Masquerade Ball, Beer Garden + More

Mackey told Patch she is "so excited about the Netflix series and the response it has gotten."

"My hope is that the iterations and the new generations of fans will help make the festival sustainable and have longevity," Mackey said.

She thinks there is now an opportunity to draw new people to the festival.

"As people fall in love with 'Wednesday' and their interest in the Addams Family and Charles Addams grows, they will eventually stumble upon our beautiful town and AddamsFest," Mackey said. "This year we welcomed a family from Tennessee who heard about the festival by a Tik Tok about the best Halloween Towns, Last year a couple from Atlanta who love Addams drove up for their anniversary and Year one we had visitors from Buffalo."

She said the Netflix series' fresh spin on the characters "opens the doors to fans who may not yet have been familiar with the family."

"Many people who live right here in Westfield were unaware that Addams lived here until AddamsFest started so it is a way to bring awareness to that history and meet the original goal of the festival which was to celebrate something that was uniquely ours and brand Westfield a destination town," Mackey said.

She added that Addams work is as "fresh, funny and poignant" now as it was decades ago when he first created the cartoon.

"He was truly ahead of his time," Mackey said. "Creating strong independent female characters, messaging that we should embrace our weirdness and themes of unusual families — at their core accepting and supporting."

Directed by Tim Burton, "Wednesday" follows the story of Wednesday Addams' years as a student when she attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart and solve the mystery that embroiled her parents.

Jenn Ortega, of "The Fallout," Scream" and "You," plays the teenage Wednesday Addams in the live-action Netflix series.

Other actors featured include Fred Armisen of "Portlandia" and "Saturday Night Live" who plays a bald-headed Uncle Fester, as well as Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams and Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams.

You can check out a trailer for "Wednesday" below:

Read more: New Netflix Show 'Wednesday' Has Ties To A Famous Westfield Resident

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