Pop Bites Takes A Look At Wednesday’s Thing

Nationwide - September 09, 2024 (USAnews.com) As the world awaits the return of Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams in Season 2 of Netflix's hit series WEDNESDAY, Pop Bites takes five to ponder the evolution of the series' other breakout star from Nevermore Academy: Thing.

Thing was the creation of Charles Addams, who drew the Addams Family cartoons in The New Yorker magazine, beginning in the 1930s. The Thing first appeared in Addams's 1954 book Homebodies. According to Addams, he was inspired by Phil Harris's 1950 novelty song "The Thing".

“The first time the world was introduced to the Thing we all know was in the 1964 The Addams Family series. While mentioned in the Charles Addams cartoon series in name only, the TV series gave us the familiar design of the helpful yet stubborn disembodied hand. Through the years Thing (which is short for Thing T. Thing - seriously) has been brought to the big and small screen in many different ways. Starting with the aforementioned 1964 series, where Thing was confined mostly to a box, and was given life by the 6’ 9” actor Tom Cassidy, who masterfully hid his giant frame from camera while inserting his arm through a hole in a table to bring Thing to life. While simple, this effect worked beautifully. Since Tom Cassidy also played the Addams butler Lurch, in scenes where Thing and Lurch had to be on screen at the same time, another actor would take on the five fingered role. Similar techniques were used in the 1998 TV reboot The New Addams Family, with Steven Fox taking on the role of Thing, and his box getting an upgrade to a closet home!

As media technologies changed through the years, so did Thing. In the 1991 Addams Family film, Thing has much more freedom of movement than he did just 27 years prior. Actor Christopher Hart played Thing while dressed in a black suit and sleeves, while a prosthetic stump was seamlessly attached to his actual hand. Using a frame by frame technique called rotoscoping (one of the many techniques used to make Superman fly in the 1978 film!) and clever camera work, Christopher Hart’s thing breathed new life and movement into the character with effects that still look great to this day!

In the 2019 animated film, Thing is free from all real world constraints as he graces the big screen for the first time as a fully digital creation. No need to hide an actor, Thing was its own independent 3D model and rig. Aside from the behind the scenes technical advances, Thing was also given his own upgrade in the form of a smartwatch with a digital eye!

For the Netflix hit Wednesday, we see Thing for the first time adorned with the various scars one would probably earn over a lifetime of being a disembodied hand, along with slight but clever details like the blackening of fingertips to give the look of livor mortis (Bravo, art department!) The current Thing is a genius blending of the prior 3 techniques, and given life by actor and magician Victor Dorobantu. Dorobantu’s hand also has a prosthetic stump attached, only this time he adorns a blue suit, not black. The blue suit allows the actor to be “keyed” out of the footage, while now-digital rotoscoping and paint teams make his disappearance seamless.

That’s not Things only trick however! Wednesday also brings Thing to life as a fully 3D creation, for times when a removal of a full blue clad body might be more difficult that necessary, such as scenes in cramped spaces, or scenes where Thing is thrown. Finally, lets not forget where Thing came from - the spirit of Tom Cassidy wedging himself into spaces just off camera to sell the illusion of Thing lives on in Wednesday, where special sets and fake floors were employed to give Dorobantu the space he needed to act, but gave the viewers the illusion of just another normal (as normal as it can be…) day at Nevermore Academy.

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