All 9 Versions Of Wednesday Addams, Ranked
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Wednesday has given the world a close look at the iconic daughter of The Addams Family, but there have been several great interpretations of this character. It all started with the comic strips that Charles Addams created for The New Yorker beginning in 1938. At that point, the Addamses were a group of unnamed aristocrats in an old Victorian mansion who acted as if their morbid habits were completely normal. Then came the 1964 sitcom The Addams Family, which gave the family members their own names, including Wednesday.
A lot has changed since then. The classic sitcom series ran for a couple of seasons, but its legacy continued into subsequent decades. Every time a new Addams Family TV show or movie came around, the character of Wednesday Addams went through a few changes, both in how she was written and how she was portrayed. Rather miraculously, there are no stinkers in the bunch. Each actor brought something new, allowing Wednesday's Jenna Ortega to mix and match the best qualities into her own spectacular performance.
9 Jennifer Surpren - Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977)
The 1977 special Halloween with the New Addams Family successfully brought back the vast majority of the original Addams Family sitcom cast, which was certainly an exciting prospect. This meant that the original star, Lisa Loring, made a triumphant return as an adult Wednesday Addams, but with a twist: in the years since the 1964 sitcom, Morticia and Gomez apparently had another daughter and named her Wednesday Jr.
Young Wednesday Jr. was played by Jennifer Surpren, who did a fantastic job of duplicating Loring's performance. The whole idea here was that audiences would still see a young, unchanged Wednesday alongside the familiar Addams Family cast, all while Loring could still appear as part of the reunion. It was certainly fun, though Surpren never had much chance to leave a more significant impact on the role.
8 Melissa Hunter - Adult Wednesday Addams (2013)
Easily the most distinctive entry on this list is Melissa Hunter's performance in the Adult Wednesday Addams web series that ran from 2013 to 2015. The crowdfunded project followed a grown-up version of Wednesday as she tried to live a millennial life in 2013 Los Angeles.
Interestingly, Hunter's portrayal of Wednesday is the most similar to Jenna Ortega's. This version of the character felt a strong sense of justice and would use her macabre ways to fight sexism and other social issues. Of course, Adult Wednesday Addams is more satire than Wednesday or any other adaptation, so it's difficult to rank it too much higher.
7 Debi Derryberry - The Addams Family (1992)
The Hanna-Barbera animated The Addams Family series aired in 1992, following the success of the 1991 live-action film. A significant appeal of the project was John Astin's return to voice Gomez Addams, but the tone was quite different from that of other adaptations. This Addams Family had a brighter, Saturday-morning cartoon feel.
Icon Debi Derryberry (known for voicing Jimmy Neutron) played Wednesday in this Addams Family adaptation, and just as this animated movie had a different tone than other projects, so did Derryberry. This version of Wednesday blended Christina Ricci's low-energy delivery with the softer sweetness of Loring's original portrayal.
6 Nicole Fugere - Addams Family Reunion (1998) & The New Addams Family (1998 - 1999)
Addams Family Reunion and its companion sitcom series, The New Addams Family, were far from popular. These projects came after the much more appreciated movies of the early '90s, and added a more slapstick quality than what Addams Family fans were comfortable with. Still, a standout of this era in the franchise is Nicole Fugere's Wednesday Addams.
Fugere certainly embraced Ricci's deadpan sociopath approach to Wednesday's character in some ways. Still, she added back the glint of childlike pleasure that was more typical of the character in the original Addams Family sitcom. The blend was perfect for The New Addams Family's tone and format, even if the project itself wasn't all that popular.
5 Cindy Henderson - The Addams Family (1973)
1973's The Addams Family was the franchise's very first animated adaptation, which meant the return of Charles Addams' original character art. This show is the origin of the Addamses-go-on-a-road-trip storyline, which was later adopted by the modern animated film adaptations.
Cindy Henderson's Wednesday Addams was unique compared to others. There is plenty of influence from Loring's version of the character, which was generally lighter and more childlike, but Henderson leaned all in with a high-pitched, cheery delivery. This version of Wednesday even wore a pink dress, but the character still delighted in beheading her dolls. The idea is more unhinged than deadpan, and it's a lot of fun.
4 Chloë Grace Moretz - The Addams Family (2019)
The Addams Family returned to animation in 2019, this time as a 3D computer-animated reimagining of the original comics' art style. The 2019 movie serves as an Addams origin story, while the 2021 The Addams Family 2 follows up with that classic road trip storyline. In both these films, Wednesday Addams is voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz.
Moretz largely embraces Ricci and Ortega's approach to the character, though she puts her own spin on things. In these Addams Family movies, Wednesday goes through a couple of identity crises, each time experimenting beyond her family's traditions. Mortez pairs this with a precisely calibrated way of speaking, which she likened to Hannibal Lecter. Overall, it gives the impression that Wednesday is a rather cute, genius sort of predator.
3 Christina Ricci - The Addams Family (1991)
After years of The Addams Family being placed firmly in the Saturday-morning cartoon category, the 1991 film franchise brought these characters back to their roots. That sleek, gothic aesthetic returned, and The Addams Family became just a bit darker than before to balance out the shifts of decades past.
Question 1 of 3
Ricci's portrayal of Wednesday Addams is what set the tone for how this character is generally regarded today. Loring's version was bright and childlike, but the 10-year-old Ricci was unblinking and terrifyingly soulless. This is also when the murderous brother-sister relationship between Pugsley and Wednesday is introduced, as well as the start of Wednesday's sharp wit and intense intellectualism. It's just iconic.
2 Lisa Loring - The Addams Family (1964)
Though The Addams Family got its start with Charles Addams' comic strips, it was the 1964 sitcom that first brought these characters to life. This is when the Addamses really became the Addamses—the satirical inversion of the traditional nuclear family. In contrast with today's adaptations, the original Addams Family was fiercely loving across the board, and that included Wednesday.
Lisa Loring was six years old when she first began playing Wednesday Addams. Her version of the character was sweet, charming, and well-behaved. She loved her family deeply, but also possessed a matter-of-fact appreciation for macabre hobbies. Loring was also extremely expressive and an excellent dancer. Though much of this was abandoned in later adaptations, Loring is still the gold standard.
1 Jenna Ortega - Wednesday (2022)
Wednesday was the first official Addams Family adaptation to place Wednesday Addams front and center, which naturally means this series has done the most to develop this character. We see several elements from past series and movies combined. Wednesday is deadpan and sociopathic, but she's also extremely creative, musical, and talented.
There's really no questioning that Ortega gives an excellent performance in Wednesday. It's common to hear criticisms that this character has evolved away from the sweet, loving girl we saw Loring play in the '60s. Still, Wednesday adds enough complexity to the characters to generally please audiences. While Ortega's Wednesday is deadpan and sadistic, she also cares deeply for her friends and family, and her sense of justice motivates nearly all she does. Every Wednesday is beloved, but this one is certainly the most complex and fleshed out.
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Wednesday
8/10
- Release Date
- November 23, 2022
- Network
- Netflix
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Wednesday Addams / Goody Addams
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Enid Sinclair
Wednesday follows the journey of Wednesday Addams as she attends Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for outcasts. Tasked with mastering her psychic abilities, she confronts a series of town murders and a haunting family mystery from 25 years ago, all while managing new social dynamics.
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The Addams Family
- Release Date
- 1964 - 1966-00-00
- Writers
- Charles Addams (characters)
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John Astin
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Carolyn Jones
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.