It’s always a good day when fan art goes viral, and it seems that AI art is in the media’s eye at the moment. An artist has tried their hand at reimagining the iconic Addams Family as a black family, and done such a fantastic job that viewers are devastated when they realise this isn’t a show but rather fan art.
RELATED: 15 Things You Might Have Missed In Netflix’s Wednesday
A Black Addams Family
If you are a Netflix fan, you have probably been watching the new Tim Burton The Addams Family spin-off, Wednesday. For the first time, The Addams Family are portrayed from a Latin American perspective, which is how they were always intended to be. Still, white-washing in the ’90s changed the plans.
A Birmingham artist, Des Wilson’s fanart of The Addams Family as a black family has gone viral. He has imagined the iconic family from a Black perspective, and the art is impeccable. It looks so professional that the unaware viewer might think that it is an actual series that is airing on Netflix. We can only hope that Netflix is paying attention because it is a brilliant concept.
Inspiration For The Art
After watching Wednesday on Netflix and seeing the iconic story from a Latin American perspective, he was inspired to recreate the Addams Family show as what it would look like from a Black perspective. Wilson felt that while the Black perspective in film and television is becoming more prevalent and popular in the modern age, some things are still missing from the Black experience. Therefore, he was inspired to make his art to fill the gap he noticed and inspire other artists to never shy away from showing all perspectives.
“It’s been very inspirational,” Wilson said in a TV interview. “A lot of the feedback I’ve been getting has been positive around people who are inspired by the work and didn’t think to imagine the Addams Family as Black. That’s one of the things I’m happy the art has done – helping to motivate people in that way.”
Artist
Desmond Wilson has always been a creative at heart. He has used every way to express himself imaginable, from photography to music. Now turning his eye to digital art, Wilson is exploring the exponential growth of artificial intelligence art generators. Through a combination of AI software and photoshop, he made the artwork just 6 days after Wednesday premiered on Netflix.
Wilson has done a few other artworks in this same vein, such as reimagining Harry Potter from the Black perspective with his artwork of Hakim Potter, which is just as detailed and inspirational for young Black artists who want to make a mark on the world.
With each new artist that steps onto the scene reimagining recognisable characters from a Black perspective, it’s just a matter of time before big producers realise what fans want, and that is Black representation through movies, series, and cartoons especially. Dez W recreated the Addams Family using the perfect characters, capturing the essence of each of the Addams family members, all the way down to the excellent, disembodied hand that movies on its own.
If this was a Netflix show, I would 100% be watching it. However, I’m sure I’m not the only person who looked at it and got excited and immediately heartbroken that it wasn’t a real show coming out of the enormous streaming platform.
