Jenna Ortega is just the latest actress to take on the iconic role of Wednesday Addams.
The Addams Family has some of the most famous TV shows and movies throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This family, which started as a cartoon for the New Yorker written by Charles Addams, has become a cultural staple, and in recent years, it has become even more relevant.
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One of the most important members of this family is Wednesday Addams, which is why Netflix decided to create, Wednesday, a spinoff just for her. This character, made famous again by Jenna Ortega, has had many live-action and animated iterations throughout the years, and Jenna Ortega flawlessly took up the challenge of portraying an iconic character with a longstanding legacy.
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8/8Karina Varadi Portrays Wednesday As A Kid In Netflix’s Wednesday
Karina Varadi is a ten-year-old actress whose first incursion in the acting world was portraying Wednesday Addams in the Netflix series. She appears in Wednesday’s memories as a little girl, portraying some of Wednesday’s worst and most beloved memories.
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Together with Jenna Ortega, Varadi created a version of Wednesday that is both malicious and lovable. While Varadi has very little screen time, her scenes are some of the most interesting moments in the show, especially when Wednesday loses her pet scorpion, Nero. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a longstanding career.
7/8Debi Derryberry Took The Role In The Second Animated Series
Ten years after Hanna-Barbera’s The Addams Family, the company decided to give this family of outcasts a second chance after their first movie succeeded. In 1992, they released The Addams Family. Debi Derryberry starred in the series as Wednesday alongside John Astin and Nancy Linari as Gomez and Morticia, respectively. Derryberry is one of her generation’s greatest voice actors, and this is probably her most iconic role.
The second animated series of The Addams Family ran for two seasons and focused on the whole family. Derryberry’s Wednesday was more similar to the original comics, cynical and mischievous. Her presence on the show often depended on her dynamic with Pugsley, who was just as malicious as his sister.
6/8Cindy Henderson Voiced Wednesday For Hanna-Barbera
The late actress Cindy Henderson became famous for roles in well-known classic sitcoms like The Odd Couple, The Brady Bunch, and The Patridge Family. Additionally, she lent her voice to Wednesday Addams in the 1973 Hanna-Barbera series alongside Jodie Foster, who voiced Pugsley.
Henderson’s Wednesday didn’t debut in The Addams Family. Instead, she appeared in the episode “Scooby-Doo Meets the Addams Family/Wednesday is Missing” in The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Only truly hardcore fans know about this incredible vintage crossover, which led the Addams family to get their own show.
5/8Nicole Fugere Was The New Wednesday In The New Addams Family
1998 marks the year of one of the first reboots of The Addams Family with Addams Family Reunion. The film served as the pilot for The New Addams Family, produced by Saban. The cast changed completely from the film to the series (with Tim Curry leaving the Gomez role for Glenn Taranto), but Nicole Fugere got to reprise the role of Wednesday.
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Fugere, who retired from the industry after this role, currently works in web services. However, fans still remember her fondly as Wednesday, a sanguinary but intellectual teenage girl with a taste for torture. Fugere, who appeared in the 65 episodes of the series, won the role against Alexandra Daddario, now famous for her roles in the Percy Jackson saga and The White Lotus.
4/8Lisa Loring Was The First Live-Action Wednesday
American actress Lisa Loring was in charge of the first-ever Wednesday’s live-action portrayal. The actress portrayed the Addams girl from 1964 to 1966, between the ages of six and eight. Eleven years after this, Loring reprised her role in Halloween with the New Addams Family as a teenage Wednesday. People will always know this actress for this iconic role.
Loring’s portrayal of Wednesday was slightly different from the New Yorker cartoons. Since she was only a kid, her dark humor hadn’t fully developed. Instead, she was odd, but still very sweet. Given her family’s idiosyncrasy, she also liked keeping bizarre pets, like spiders and lizards, and strange toys, like her headless doll, Marie Antoinette.
3/8Christina Ricci’s Made Wednesday Mainstream
The Addams Family and Addams Family Values are the first two films in the Addams Family franchise. Both films center on the family’s affairs. The two movies’ humor depends entirely on how different the Addams are from other “normie” characters around them. In this film, Wednesday was portrayed by Christina Ricci. This role definitely skyrocketed Ricci’s career, who has now starred in dozens of important films like Sleepy Hollow and Monster. Regardless, she remains one of the most underrated actresses of her generation.
Ricci’s portrayal of Wednesday is probably the most canonic depiction of the character and the most accurate one considering the cartoons. She’s deadpan, morbidly violent, and all in all scarier. This is a great change from the animated series, where she was primarily a kid with slightly different interests than other girls her age.
2/8Chloë Grace Moretz Voices The Latest Animated Wednesday
Before Netflix’s Wednesday, the most recent reboot of The Addams Family took place in 2019 with The Addams Family and The Addams Family 2, both successful animated movies. The film follows the family as they deal with reality TV host Margaux Needler, who wants to get rid of them. It features Oscar Isaac as Gomez, Charlize Theron as Morticia, and Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday.
Moretz’s version of Wednesday stars in the film’s sequel, as she worries she may not be a true Addams due to an exchange in the hospital the day she was born. Regardless of the results in this matter, the film only reinforces Wednesday’s bond with her family.
1/8Jenna Ortega Is Already A Fan Favorite Wednesday Addams
Jenna Ortega had her break-out role in Netflix’s spinoff of the Addams Family, Wednesday, and she’s the first actress in this role who gets her own TV series. Although people would have thought no one would be as iconic as Christina Ricci, Jenna Ortega is already a fan-favorite actress of Wednesday Addams.
Ortega perfectly portrays the best attributes of every Wednesday before her. She’s weird, gruesome, antisocial, and a bit violent, but also, she’s just a teenager with normal feelings. Her portrayal of this character is so amazing that she was even nominated for a Golden Globe.
