The Addams Family started as a recurring gag in Charles Addams' cartoons for The New Yorker in 1938, a nameless gothic household whose idea of a good time looked like everyone else's nightmare. Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Grandmama, Lurch, and Thing didn't even have names until ABC turned the cartoons into The Addams Family TV series in 1964, and that two-season sitcom set the template that every version since has worked from.
From there the franchise came back in a new form roughly every decade. Hanna-Barbera made animated series in the 1970s and 1990s, and Barry Sonnenfeld directed The Addams Family and Addams Family Values with Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, and Christina Ricci. Nathan Lane led a Broadway musical, and MGM made a pair of animated movies. Netflix's Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega with Tim Burton behind the camera, turned the family's daughter into the lead of a global hit, and Wednesday Season 3 is expected in 2027. On the gaming side, Fester's Quest, the Ocean Software games, and The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem trace a history that goes all the way back to the NES.
Charles Addams was a cartoonist from Westfield, New Jersey, and his first cartoon featuring the family ran in The New Yorker in 1938. The cartoons were single panels, and the joke was almost always the same in the best way: a family that finds the morbid perfectly normal, surrounded by a world that finds them horrifying. One of his best known panels shows the family on the roof of their mansion getting ready to pour a cauldron of boiling oil onto a group of Christmas carolers below.
The family appeared in his cartoons on and off for decades, but none of them had names until the TV adaptation came along. Addams named the characters himself for the 1964 series, and Wednesday's name comes from the old nursery rhyme line about Wednesday's child being full of woe. Addams died in 1988, and every adaptation since, including the 2019 animated movie that set its story in a New Jersey town as a nod to his hometown, has leaned on the tone of those original panels.
The Addams Family aired on ABC from September 1964 to April 1966, running 64 black and white episodes over two seasons. John Astin played Gomez and Carolyn Jones played Morticia, and their constant romance, all the "Tish" and "cara mia" business, gave the show a warmth that the cartoons never needed. Jackie Coogan, who had been a child star in Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, played Uncle Fester. Ted Cassidy played Lurch, the towering butler, and often played Thing's hand as well. Lisa Loring and Ken Weatherwax played Wednesday and Pugsley, with Blossom Rock as Grandmama and Felix Silla under all that hair as Cousin Itt.
Vic Mizzy wrote the finger snapping theme song, which has outlived the show by about 60 years at this point. The Addams Family debuted the same season as CBS's The Munsters, and the two shows are still constantly compared, but The Addams Family's angle was different. The Munsters were monsters trying to fit in, and the Addamses never cared about fitting in at all.
The family made their animated debut in a 1972 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, which led to Hanna-Barbera's The Addams Family animated series on NBC in 1973. That show sent the family across the country in a gothic RV, and a young Jodie Foster voiced Pugsley. Jackie Coogan and Ted Cassidy came back to voice Fester and Lurch.
Most of the original live-action cast reunited for Halloween with the New Addams Family, an NBC TV movie in 1977. Hanna-Barbera returned in 1992 with a second animated series on ABC, this one with John Astin voicing Gomez again, and it ran for two seasons. That 1992 cartoon is also the version the game The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt was based on.
Barry Sonnenfeld made his directing debut with The Addams Family in 1991, and the casting is the reason so many people still picture this version first. Raul Julia played Gomez as a fencing, sword swallowing romantic, Anjelica Huston played Morticia with barely a muscle moving in her face, and Christina Ricci's deadpan Wednesday became the definitive take on the character for a generation. Christopher Lloyd played Fester, Jimmy Workman played Pugsley, Carel Struycken played Lurch, and Christopher Hart's hand played Thing.
The plot follows a scheme by the family's crooked lawyer Tully Alford and loan shark Abigail Craven to get into the Addams vault by passing off Abigail's son Gordon as Gomez's long lost brother Fester. The twist is that Gordon really is Fester, who lost his memory years earlier. The movie grossed around $191 million worldwide and made a sequel inevitable.
Addams Family Values brought the whole cast back in 1993 and added a baby, Pubert, with a mustache just like his father's. Joan Cusack played Debbie Jellinsky, a nanny who is secretly a serial killer marrying rich men for their money, and she sets her sights on Fester. To get Wednesday and Pugsley out of the way, Debbie convinces the family to ship them off to Camp Chippewa, a summer camp full of cheerful, wealthy kids.
The camp storyline gave Christina Ricci the scene a lot of people remember most from either movie, Wednesday's Thanksgiving play going completely off script into a full revolt against the camp. Carol Kane took over as Grandmama, and Wednesday's camp romance with Joel Glicker gave her a rare moment of almost smiling. Values made less money than the first movie but is the one fans tend to bring up first.
The family went to Warner Bros. for Addams Family Reunion, a 1998 direct to video movie with Tim Curry as Gomez and Daryl Hannah as Morticia. It doesn't connect to the Sonnenfeld movies and is mostly remembered as a curiosity because of that cast.
The New Addams Family followed later that year as a live-action series on Fox Family in the US and YTV in Canada, with Glenn Taranto as Gomez and Ellie Harvie as Morticia. It ran for 65 episodes, and a lot of them remade scripts from the 1964 show. John Astin appeared as Grandpapa Addams, a nice passing of the torch from the original Gomez.
The Addams Family musical opened on Broadway in 2010 with Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, and a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. The story jumps ahead to a grown up Wednesday who has fallen for a normal boy named Lucas Beineke, and the whole show builds to a dinner where both families meet. Krysta Rodriguez played Wednesday and Kevin Chamberlin played Fester. The Broadway run wrapped at the end of 2011, but the musical became a staple of regional theater and high school productions, which keeps it in front of new audiences every year.
MGM brought the family back as a CGI animated movie in 2019, directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan, with character designs pulled straight from Charles Addams' original cartoons. Oscar Isaac voiced Gomez, Charlize Theron voiced Morticia, Chloë Grace Moretz voiced Wednesday, Finn Wolfhard voiced Pugsley, Nick Kroll voiced Fester, and Snoop Dogg voiced Cousin Itt. The villain is Margaux Needler, a home makeover TV host voiced by Allison Janney who wants the Addams mansion gone from her perfect planned town.
The Addams Family 2 followed in 2021 as a road trip movie, with the family crossing the country while Wednesday starts to wonder if she was switched at birth. Bill Hader voiced Cyrus Strange, a scientist who claims Wednesday is really his daughter. The sequel released in theaters and on video on demand at the same time.
Wednesday premiered on Netflix in November 2022, created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, with Tim Burton directing half of the first season. Jenna Ortega plays Wednesday Addams, who gets expelled after dumping piranhas into her school's swimming pool and ends up at Nevermore Academy, a school for outcasts near the town of Jericho, Vermont. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Morticia, Luis Guzmán plays Gomez, Isaac Ordonez plays Pugsley, Fred Armisen plays Fester, and Victor Dorobantu plays Thing, who is basically Wednesday's sidekick for the whole show.
Season 1 is a murder mystery built around a monster called the Hyde, and the reveal ties back to Laurel Gates, a villain who spent the season hiding as the botany teacher Marilyn Thornhill. That role went to Christina Ricci, which is a great bit of casting for anyone who grew up with the 1991 movie. Emma Myers plays Wednesday's roommate Enid Sinclair, Gwendoline Christie plays Principal Larissa Weems, and Jenna Ortega's dance scene to The Cramps' "Goo Goo Muck" became a viral moment all over social media. Netflix lists the first season as its most-watched English-language series.
Wednesday Season 2 arrived in two parts in August and September of 2025. Steve Buscemi joined as the new Nevermore principal Barry Dort, Joanna Lumley came in as Morticia's mother, Grandmama Hester Frump, and Lady Gaga appeared as Rosaline Rotwood. The season ends with the first real look at Morticia's missing sister Ophelia, locked away and scrawling "Wednesday must die" across a wall, which sets up Season 3.
Netflix renewed Wednesday for Season 3 in July 2025, before Season 2 had even premiered, and production started near Dublin in February 2026 with filming also taking place in Paris. Jenna Ortega returns as Wednesday, and Eva Green joins as Aunt Ophelia, Morticia's long lost sister. Winona Ryder, who spent nearly a decade on Stranger Things, is also new to the cast and reportedly plays a character named Tabitha. Chris Sarandon, Noah Taylor, Oscar Morgan, and Kennedy Moyer round out the new cast, and Joanna Lumley moves up to series regular as Grandmama.
Netflix hasn't announced a release date for Wednesday Season 3, but with production wrapped, a 2027 premiere is the expected window. The cast list leans heavily on Tim Burton regulars this time, with Eva Green, Winona Ryder, and Chris Sarandon all having worked with him before.
The first Addams Family game was Fester's Quest, released by Sunsoft for the NES in 1989. It has nothing to do with any particular version of the family, it just drops Uncle Fester into an alien invasion armed with a gun that changes as he picks up items, with blue guns boosting his firepower and red guns knocking it back down. It was punishing enough that GamesRadar put it on a list of the worst games ever made, and it still sold about a million copies.
Ocean Software made the games most people remember. The Addams Family landed on the SNES, Amiga, Game Boy, and other platforms in 1992, based on the 1991 movie, with Gomez exploring the mansion to rescue his family after Tully Alford takes over the house. The Genesis version followed in late 1993. The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt came out in 1993, based on the 1992 cartoon, and Addams Family Values arrived on the SNES in 1995 as a top down adventure with Fester searching for baby Pubert, with a Mega Drive version released only in Europe. Icom also made a separate Addams Family game for the TurboGrafx-CD, and The New Addams Family Series came out on the Game Boy Color in 2001.
The family stayed off consoles for almost 20 years after that. The Addams Family: Mystery Mansion launched on mobile in 2019 alongside the animated movie, and The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem followed in September 2021 from developer PHL Collective and publisher Outright Games. Mansion Mayhem is a 3D platformer based on the 2019 movie, released on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Stadia.
Bally released The Addams Family pinball machine in 1992, designed by Pat Lawlor with Larry DeMar and built around the 1991 movie. Raul Julia recorded new lines specifically for the game, while Anjelica Huston's voice was taken from the film, and Thing pops out of a box on the playfield to grab the ball. More than 20,000 machines were made, which makes it the best-selling pinball machine ever produced, and it's still a fixture at arcades and pinball bars more than 30 years later.
Gomez is the head of the family, a wealthy, endlessly enthusiastic man who loves fencing, explosions, and above all Morticia. John Astin, Raul Julia, Tim Curry, Glenn Taranto, Nathan Lane, Oscar Isaac, and Luis Guzmán have all played him.
Morticia is the calm center of the family, gliding around in a tight black gown and keeping a garden of carnivorous plants. Carolyn Jones, Anjelica Huston, Daryl Hannah, Ellie Harvie, Bebe Neuwirth, Charlize Theron, and Catherine Zeta-Jones have played her.
Wednesday is the family's deadpan daughter, and she has gone from a background kid in 1964 to the star of her own Netflix series. Lisa Loring, Christina Ricci, Nicole Fugere, Krysta Rodriguez, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Jenna Ortega have all played Wednesday.
Pugsley is Wednesday's younger brother and usually the target of her experiments. Ken Weatherwax, Jimmy Workman, Finn Wolfhard, and Isaac Ordonez have played him.
Fester is the bald, electricity loving uncle who can light a bulb by putting it in his mouth. Jackie Coogan, Christopher Lloyd, Kevin Chamberlin, Nick Kroll, and Fred Armisen have played Fester.
Lurch is the family's towering butler, played by Ted Cassidy, Carel Struycken, and George Burcea among others. Thing is a disembodied hand that lives in a box and acts as a family servant in the older versions and Wednesday's partner in the Netflix show. Grandmama has been played by Blossom Rock, Judith Malina, Carol Kane, Bette Midler in the animated movies, and Joanna Lumley as Hester Frump in Wednesday. Cousin Itt is the small, fully hair covered relative who speaks in fast gibberish that only the family understands.
In release order, the family started in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons in 1938, then moved to the live-action The Addams Family TV series from 1964 to 1966. The 1973 Hanna-Barbera animated series came next, followed by the TV movie Halloween with the New Addams Family in 1977. The Addams Family movie arrived in 1991, then the second Hanna-Barbera cartoon in 1992 and Addams Family Values in 1993.
Addams Family Reunion and The New Addams Family both came in 1998, and the Broadway musical opened in 2010. The animated The Addams Family released in 2019, The Addams Family 2 followed in 2021, and Wednesday premiered on Netflix in 2022, with Season 2 in 2025 and Season 3 expected in 2027. None of these share a single continuity, so every version works as its own starting point.
Wednesday Season 3 is the next confirmed piece of the franchise, with Netflix targeting 2027. Beyond that, Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are developing a brand new animated Addams Family movie for Amazon MGM Studios, and they've described it as a full reboot of the animated films that won't connect to the 2019 and 2021 movies or to the Netflix series. With MGM now owned by Amazon, that puts the family on two streaming services at once, which is about as Addams as corporate ownership gets.