Is Wednesday Addams Autistic in Netflix Show? Explained

The Wednesday series on Netflix has become such a success as there are many people who have enjoyed this series really well because it brought back to life the Addams Family in a rather unconventional way. However, while we all know that Wednesday Addams is an odd one, as that has always been a trademark of the members of the Addams Family, there are those who believe that she could be suffering from a disability. So, is Wednesday Addams actually autistic?

There is no confirmation as to whether or not Wednesday Addams is autistic, but series director Tim Burton did relate to the character after he read the script because he could relate to the same things that Wednesday felt whenever she is forced to socialize. Burton himself is said to be autistic.

The thing about Wednesday is that she is someone who doesn’t really understand what it means to be in regular society, regardless of whether we are talking about Outcasts and Normies, as she struggles to actually interact with the people around her. In that regard, people have a reason to believe that she could be autistic, but that’s something that hasn’t been confirmed.

Does Wednesday Have Autism In Wednesday?

One of the things that we saw in the Wednesday series on Netflix was the fact that Wednesday Addams was a unique person that kind of departed from the usual personality of the character we’ve seen in previous iterations of the Addams Family. Wednesday, in the other versions of the Addams Family, has always been a young goth girl that doesn’t really like socializing with other people. But in the Wednesday series, she took that to an entirely different level.

While there are a lot of different versions of the Addams Family, the Wednesday series took the classic storyline to a darker route by making Wednesday Addams the centerpiece of what is a mystery thriller involving teenage relationships and past crimes and events that occurred in the strange school of Nevermore Academy.

Of course, this version of Wednesday is also quite unique because of the fact that, while she is still the same goth girl that fans have always loved about the character, she seems to be different in the sense that she could be on the autism spectrum. And several clues do point to the possibility that she could be autistic.

According to the CDC, autism is:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. People with ASD often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. People with ASD may also have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention.

In that regard, there were actually instances where Wednesday showed the possibility of her being autistic. Of course, we know for a fact that the Addams Family members have always been strange and unique, but Wednesday seems to be different because she generally hates being around other people and keeps herself away from things that require her to socialize, interact, and form relationships with anything that moves.

As we know, those who are on the autism spectrum tend to have problems with social communication and interaction and have behaviors that tend to be repetitive and restricted. That was the case for Wednesday, who struggled to socialize with other people and couldn’t even understand common social clues no matter how smart she was. She also lacks common empathy, as there were instances wherein she just didn’t care about what her friends and classmates would feel. And there’s also the fact that she tends to restrict herself to certain behaviors and hobbies.

There’s also the fact that we know that Wednesday and her classmates go to a school that was meant for Outcasts, who are people with different supernatural traits and abilities. And the fact that Nevermore was meant for children who are different could be a metaphor for kids who are different from the rest of society because they are on the autism spectrum.

But while there was never a confirmation regarding whether or not Wednesday Addams is autistic, it is worth noting that Tim Burton, in an Empire magazine interview, said that he was able to relate to the script when he read it. He said:

“When I read this script, it just spoke to me about how I felt in school and how you feel about your parents, how you feel as a person. It gave the Addams Family a different kind of reality. It was an interesting combination.”

Series director Tim Burton was never formally diagnosed with autism, but it is widely believed that he is actually on the spectrum. This is probably the reason why Burton has such creative ideas that we often don’t see from other people and why he was able to relate to what Wednesday felt whenever she was out in public.

In that regard, we can’t say for sure that Wednesday is indeed autistic but what we do know is that she seems to represent people who have trouble being around other people and are generally not interested in socializing because they struggle to do so. And whether or not Wednesday is on the spectrum is something that is up in the air, but it is pretty much open for discussions.

Why Is Wednesday Addams Different?

Of course, at this point, no one is yet to confirm that Wednesday Addams is indeed autistic. But the point of the matter is that she is strange, odd, and just generally different from the rest of society. So, why is Wednesday different?

When we say that Wednesday is different, we are not only talking about the fact that she’s an Outcast. It may indeed be true that she struggled to make friends in any of her previous schools and was generally someone who just didn’t like being around other people. But that was something that held true after she moved to Nevermore Academy.

If you take away the fact that the kids in Nevermore had special powers, traits, and abilities, they still act like normal teenagers in a school setup. As such, Wednesday still struggled to interact with her own kind, as not even the Outcasts were any different from the Normies in terms of their personalities and the way that they behaved.

As such, Wednesday is indeed different from the rest of society, as not even her parents act the way she does. Take away the fact that Gomez and Morticia look like they belong in a cemetery, they are generally nice and loving people that are open to making friends with others. Meanwhile, Pugsley may have a thing for death and destruction, but he seems to act like an ordinary kid a lot of times as well. Of course, we’re not going to talk about Fester because we always knew that he was an odd one, and that was probably the reason why he and Wednesday got along really well.

The point of the matter here is that Wednesday could be different because she just really is different, as all of the members of the Addams Family are unique in their own special way. In that regard, Wednesday’s uniqueness manifests in how differently she sees the world and how she generally doesn’t like being with other people. Of course, the possibility of her being on the autism spectrum is still up in the air, but we’d like to go with the possibility that she is just unique in her own special way.