The Addams Family is famous for its wacky looks, Halloween theme, and infamous snaps. As their theme songs say, they're "mysterious and spooky" and always stayed that way. Despite being adapted multiple times from their original forms, the Addams Family at heart has always remained as that one weird and crazy family. At the heart of it, is their daughter Wednesday. She's not like the other girls with her ability to read minds and deadpan humor. Wednesday Addams is a breed of teenager no one has ever seen before.

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Directed by Tim Burton, Wednesday will focus on her time at the Nevermore Academy. Wednesday has never fit in with the other kids, and now she will attend a school that is as strange as she is. With no official release date yet, Wednesday is set to discover a dark secret about her family and solve murders at her school along the way. To prepare for the release of Wednesday, here are some facts about the Addams Family that audiences need before they dive into the series.

The Addams Family Came From a New Yorker Cartoon

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Created by Charles Addams in 1938, the Addams Family was created to be the antithesis of the nuclear family. They were all about everything that was macabre and terrifying to any other family. In one-shot New Yorker comics, Addams typically portrayed the family doing everyday normal things in bizarre ways. For example, listening to music in the parlor looks completely normal until there are dismembered hands changing the record as it plays. As the comic went on the family members were never named officially, but once the comic was option into a television series, everything changed.

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Each iteration of the Addams Family has been different in its own right, with Wednesday being the latest project to add to the expansive canon. As it’s been announced, Wednesday will embark on a journey at the Nevermore Academy, the school where Morticia and Gomez met and fell in love. This new perspective will allow Netflix to grow the Addams Family universe, with a whole cast of characters set to be introduced into the Addams universe.

Wednesday's Name Originated from A Nursery Rhyme

Jenny Ortega looking into the camera as Wednesday Addams in Tim Burton's 'Wednesday.'

Like Gomez and the rest of the cast, Wednesday was named when the television show came to air. Rather than imagine a normal name for the Addams’ only daughter, Charles Addams took inspiration from a nursery rhyme called “Monday’s Child.” Inspired by the line, “Wednesday’s child is full of woe,” this seemed to be the perfect name for the Addams Family’s mischievous girl.

Wednesday is known for finding things that other kids would find scary to be interesting. She isn’t afraid of death, torture and the grotesque, as a matter of fact, she embraces it. In the previews for Wednesday, she states that she’s not against birthdays because it reminds her that she’s “a year closer to death’s cold embrace.” Wednesday is a “child full of woe” because she’s not afraid of things that would make others feel woeful, but also isn’t afraid to make things difficult for others.

The Family is of Spanish Descent

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When it came time to adapt the comics into a television series, Charles Addams needed to decide on a name for the patriarch of the family. Initially, the thought was to name him Repelli, to invoke the thought of “repellent.” Gomez wasn’t created to be conventionally attractive. In the comics, he was short, had crooked teeth, a receding chin, and a strange nose. But one thing remained that was always true about him was his love for Morticia. Charles Addams left it up to John Astin, the actor who played Gomez in the television series and so to portray that love for Morticia best, Astin leaned into the Latin lover trope, bringing Gomez’s Latino heritage to life.

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Jenna Ortega proudly reminded audiences that the Addams family is of Latino descent. On making that obvious on Wednesday, Ortega said, “Wednesday is technically a Latina character and that’s never been represented. So, for me, anytime I that I have an opportunity to represent my community, I want that to be seen.” This time around, Luiz Guzmán has been cast as Gomez, solidifying Wednesday’s ties to her Latina identity.

Some Addams Family Members Have Powers

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The Addams Family is already known for being strange and not normal. With that comes their shared immunity to dangerous things. They can survive electricity, fire and poisoning as they are immune to all three. Morticia can create smoke from her body and Uncle Fester can produce electricity. As the family works together to survive, there are several instances in which each iteration of the family showed off their powers.

The premise of ‘Wednesday’ speaks to Wednesday’s budding psychic powers, meaning she may pick up the ability to read minds by the end of the season. Whether her other classmates will have strange abilities as well is to be revealed later.

Wednesday Often Attempts to Hurt Her Brother

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Like any sibling rivalry, Wednesday and Pugsley Addams get along like every other pair. Wednesday likes to play pranks on her brother. For example, in The Addams Family (1991), Wednesday puts Pugsley in the electric chair to give him a bit of a shock. There’s no argument from Pugsley, nor from Morticia and Wednesday finds joy from watching him squirm in the chair.

Their relationship is no doubt to be the same in the Netflix series. In promo photos, Pugsley is seen wrapped up like a pig with an apple in his mouth emerging from a locker. Wednesday's torture of Pugsley might not go as far as electrocuting him, but it is expected that she will treat him with the only way she knows how to love.

Thing Wasn't Always Just A Detached Hand

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Thing became his own character when he appeared in a New Yorker comic assisting Gomez with changing the records. It was imagined for him to be more than just hands, but for the sake of an audience, Addams kept him to hands. When the television show became a project, Thing grew into a hand in a box that would interact with the rest of the family. Eventually, when The Addams Family was adapted into a film, Thing became a hand that acted more like a spider. He could jump up and crawl around just as a hand with its wrist.

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Wednesday plans to stay true to the iteration of Thing that appears in the films. In the trailer, he rests on Wednesday’s shoulder, almost like a pet bird. The hand is mutilated like Frankenstein’s monster to give the hint that he was pieced together and that there is more of him out there. Perhaps the Netflix series will dive more into his origin story and provide more detail.

Cousin Itt was created for the TV series

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Cousin Itt, eventually ‘Cousin It,’ is the creature most famous for being a walking ball of hair. However, he was not created by Charles Addams, but rather by a producer of the television series in the 1960s. He did not speak a language audiences would understand, but he would eventually learn how to communicate from Morticia and Gomez. He has appeared in every Addams Family adaptation since.

At the moment, there are no official announcements related to the casting of Cousin Itt, so there is little chance that he may appear in this series. However, if there is a second season, there is a possibility that the hairball may appear later on.

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