Writer Luke Matheny on Tackling Intimidation and Timeless Themes in Weaving a New ‘Charlotte’s Web’

When Luke Matheny first sat down to adapt Charlotte’s Web for a new audience, he felt stuck.

What writer doesn’t cherish Charlotte A. Cavatica, the spider namesake of E. B. White’s children’s literature classic? Generations of students have read the book since its debut in 1952, becoming enchanted with Charlotte, a practical yet witty wordsmith who arrives with a wave of spindly legs and a cheery “Salutations!” The intimidation factor was high.

“It’s just so beautifully rendered,” Matheny said, noting he imagined not the book’s fans peeking over his shoulder but “the ghost of E. B. White himself.”

Yet just as the tiny Charlotte saves Wilbur from becoming Christmas dinner by weaving various words into her webs, her writing inspired Matheny, too.

“The last web that she spins says the word humble in it. So that was actually a key to me, unlocking a lot of the story where I was thinking, OK, this is maybe a story about humility, and how we’re born humble. Life can strip the humility away from us if we’re not careful, and if we’re lucky, we have a chance to earn it back.”

With this version of Charlotte’s Web now airing as a three-part miniseries on HBO Max, Matheny untangles what it’s like to take on a beloved work and how writing for children provides the freedom to explore deeper themes.

Wilbur might be humble (along with radiant, terrific, and some pig, as readers remember), but Charlotte’s Web is a legend. Winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal among other awards and nominations, the book consistently lands in polls of top children’s books. When it was first published, Eudora Welty wrote in The New York Times, “As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done.”

Critics and audiences warmed to a 1973 animated musical adaptation starring Debbie Reynolds (Singin’ in the Rain), as well as a 2006 live-action animated version with Julia Roberts (After the Hunt) and a young Dakota Fanning (Ripley). The latest version, produced by Sesame Workshop and Guru Animation Studio, stars Amy Adams (Disenchanted) as Charlotte, Elijah Wood as Adult Wilbur, Griffin Robert Faulkner as Young Wilbur, Jean Smart (Hacks) as the narrator, and Natalie Chan as Fern, the young farmgirl who cares for Wilbur as a baby. Tom Everett Scott and Leith M. Burke voice some of the humans while Cynthia Erivo, Randall Park, and Keith David play Wilbur’s barnyard colleagues.

Matheny has worked on several young adult or children’s projects since winning a 2010 Oscar for his life-action short God of Love. (Coincidentally, Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal presented that award.) He was a writer on the Amazon Studios series Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street and the 2020 Apple TV+ short Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth.

He became attached to Charlotte’s Web in 2021 as an executive producer, writer, and co-showrunner of Ghostwriter. The live-action Apple TV+ series about teens encountering a ghost who haunts a neighborhood bookstore won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s or Family Viewing Program in 2020.

After one Ghostwriter episode involved Charlotte’s Web, White’s estate contacted Sesame Workshop about adapting the book into a miniseries. Matheny and a small team of writers finished the scripts in 2022.

“I treated it as this great gift that just kind of walked in the door, and I didn’t want to squander it,” he said, adding that everyone on the project felt the same way.

As the animation took shape, Matheny worked with director Yurie Rocha (Sesame Street Mecha Builders), composer T.J. Hill (The Owl House), and the voice actors while his children, now eight and five, grew more eager to see the results.

“They’ve seen bits and pieces that were unfinished, and all they would do is ask me why the trees are pink,” he said.

Having read Strunk and White’s Elements of Style in college and several of White’s essays, Matheny said he first wondered how he could expand on White’s material, which felt “impossible.”

But then he started rereading the book Charlotte’s Web closely, “and then diving into things that you don’t question as much when you’re six-years-old, like, Why does Charlotte land on the words some pig for the web? Or, How did Wilbur develop this strangely formal way of talking? … Things that I thought were opportunities to flesh out the world a little more and then build everything toward this shattering climax.”

Yes, as many who sniffled through the book recall, Charlotte dies knowing Wilbur will live a full life, having lived her own to its natural end.

“To E. B. White’s enormous credit, it was such a radical plot decision,” Matheny said. “You spend the entire book wondering whether this pig is going to live or not, and then he pulls out the rug by killing the spider, who has become sort of a maternal figure. I think that taps into some deeply primal fear of losing your mother maybe, and that’s why it’s so memorable.”

White eulogizes Charlotte as “a true friend and a good writer.” While her death still hits the young pig (and viewers) hard in this latest version, Matheny and his creative team add a sweet touch to show how Charlotte remains close to the farm and her friend’s heart.

Matheny set the story in 1949 New England to be true to the spirit and location of the book. Along with some slapstick and irony—Wilbur, snuggled close to Fern, doesn’t notice the bacon her mom cooks in a frypan—this adaptation adds more threads around the themes of loyalty, friendship, sacrifice, and growing up. For instance, Fern develops a friendship with a boy her age, Henry Fussy, here a youth interested in astronomy, while Fern’s mom, Dolores (Ana Ortiz, Goosebumps), and Aunt Edith (Rosario Dawson, Ashoka) make quilts, paralleling Charlotte’s weaving.

Dolores and Edith also share a proud Puerto Rican heritage, something that evolved after research discovered populations of Puerto Rican farmworkers during that era. “We thought that might be a nice way to incorporate a little more universal and historically accurate sort of breadth to the cast, especially in the human characters,” Matheny said.

White’s granddaughter, Martha White, was receptive to the production’s ideas, which also drew influences from A River Runs Through It and Garrison Keillor. “I think that helped take the edge off a little bit, because she could have handled it in a way that would have been very intimidating for me, but she didn't do that,” Matheny said. “She certainly asserted her opinions when she disagreed, but she’s a wonderful writer in her own right. So it was always good to see her notes because they were just incisively written.”

Writing for children allows the freedom to spell themes out a bit more, kind of like Charlotte’s messages, he’s learned.

“One thing I think you can get away with more is a blunter exploration of themes that might feel cheesy or heavy-handed for, you know, an adult indie drama,” he said. “Themes are important to me, and I like exploring those. And children’s entertainment certainly gives you a license to do that—in fact, you’re encouraged to do that.”

Yet don’t be reluctant to think big. Much like Charlotte trusted her audience, writers can do that too.

“I learned very early writing for kids that you have to still write at the top of your intelligence,” Matheny said. “Sure, there are some vocabulary things that maybe you have to back off from, just for comprehension’s sake. But kids understand as much as adults do. So I don't try to write something I think is good and then turn it into the kid version.”

Charlotte's Web is streaming exclusively on HBO Max.