Finn Wolfhardhas amassed quite the collection of iconic roles in a short amount of time, and his best movies and TV shows bring a variety of characters to life, mostly in science fiction and horror projects. Wolfhard has been acting since he was a young child with roles on television and in movies, but Netflix’sStranger Thingsgave the actor his big break and his gateway into the world of darker roles and edgier parts.
Since breaking out inStranger Things, Wolfhard has also joined bigger franchises, likeGhostbusters, released music with his band, and written and directed his own short films and movies. He has immersed himself into all creative aspects of the storytelling business, which might be why so much of his work has been improving the last few years. He has a way of making characters stand out, and his best movies and TV shows reflect that.
Saturday Nighttakes audiences back to the year 1965. It recounts the often chaotic happenings going on behind the scenes asSaturday Nightprepares to go live for the first timeon NBC. The modern cast of Dylan O’Brien, Gabriel LaBelle, Ella Hunt, and Lamorne Morris takes on the personas of the iconic comedic figures from the show’s first season.
Saturday Nightreleased in 2024, just in time to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of sketch comedy seriesSaturday Night Live. The trouble is that the series had its own television special as well, so the movie did not receive nearly as much attention. ThoughSaturday Nightdid well on the film festival circuit in 2024, it did not make a big splash at the box office. It alsoreceived largely mixed reviews from critics, but the performances of the cast were certainly praised.
While Wolfhard is not playing one of the stars of the show, he is in a supporting role as one of the pages at NBC. He is responsible for helping things to run smoothly behind the scenes, andit’s fitting that Wolfhard, like so many of the cast, is a member of a whole new generation of big talent bringing to life what became a historic program.
When You Finish Saving The Worldis a tale of a mother and son who used to be close, but the teenage years are slowly pulling them apart. Julianne Moore, as the mom, runs a shelter for battered women and finds herself bonding with one of the teens there, while her son (Wolfhard) is more interested in impressing a girl he knows and getting his music out than he is in his mother’s life.
Wolfhard plays the part of a teen trying to outgrow their parent perfectly, likely because he is an actual teenager in a band.He and Moore are able to make their affection for one another clear while still placing a distance into every one of their scenes.They work well together, and a bright spot here is that Wolfhard also gets to perform music for the movie, something he does not get to do for many of his roles.
Wolfhard originally narrated the audio drama as Ziggy before the project was adapted into a movie.
ITis one ofStephen King’s most famous horror stories. 2017 marks the second time the novel has been adapted for the screen (the first was a TV miniseries). The challenge with the movies is finding child and adult actors who can equally commit to the roles and be believable as the same characters. It is also almost universally acknowledged that the storylines with the kids tend to be more compelling for the audience than those of the adults, making the second chapter, which focuses on the adults, a particular challenge.
The story follows a group of childhood friends who battle a monster that brings their deepest fears to life when one of their younger siblings is taken by it.The second chapter primarily utilizes the child actors in flashback sequences while the focus is on the adult actors.
That is why, despite being one of Wolfhard’s best movies, this ranks a little lower among his top projects.Wolfhard is great as Richie, but he does not get quite as much to do here as he does in Chapter One.
Bill Hader plays the adult version of Richie, Finn Wolfhard’s character.
Ghostbustershas had a lot of adaptationssince the original movie - comic books, an animated series, and an all-female lineup - but this legacy sequel made a lot of fans hopeful that the franchise could come to life for a new generation. This movie is set more than 20 years after the original and sees the family of one of the original Ghostbusters discovering their technology and waging their own battle against ghosts.
Wolfhard’s Trevor is the grandson of Egon Spengler, but did not know his grandfather, so his experience with ghosts and the ghostbusting technology is all new to him. While he spends a lot of the movie complaining about a move to a small town from New York, he rises to the occasion when his family needs him.
Wolfhard plays Trevor with just enough wit and swagger to make him seem like a big-city kid stuck in a small town. While he might not have the same sense of wonder that McKenna Grace’s Phoebe does, he is still a standout in the movie.
In the early 1990s, a game show aimed to teach kids about geography.Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiegohad a catchy theme song, mysteries to solve, and a thief on the run. It was a great idea, and it also makes for a great animated series in the modern day.
The animated Netflix original gives an origin story for Carmen Sandiego as she travels the world with her allies and steals from the bad guys. This new series turns her into more of an antihero than a villain, like she was in the original game show.
Wolfhard gives voice to Player, the alias of a teenager at home on his computer who is in near-constant communication with Carmen. He is able to decipher her clues from the villains to tell her where to go next and what she is looking for.Wolfhard is essentially the game show contestant in the original series, but with a new twist, and he makes for a great voice-over artist as he is full of enthusiasm for Carmen’s plans.
Finn Wolfhard has been making a habit of landing himself in projects that are either set in the 1980s or feel like they might have been lifted from that time. WhileThe Legend of Ochiis not set in the 1980s, it certainly feels like an homage to fantasy adventures likeThe Neverending Story, which made the decade so great. The movies were beautiful and immersive, and just on the edge of dark for kids who were caught in the middle of growing up.
That isThe Legend of Ochi. It sees an eclectic group of characters set off on an adventure in a harsh landscape. At the heart of the story is a young girl who finds a baby Ochi, thought to be a monstrous creature, and befriends it.
Wolfhard’s character here feels like it could have ended up on the cutting room floor, so it’s a credit to Wolfhard’s ability that Petro is not cut from the script.The movie is really Yuri’s (Helena Zengel) story. Despite that, Wolfhard does his best and allows the scenery and the practical effects to fully help make him part of the fantasy world.
Two different adaptations of the classic story ofPinocchiomade their way to the screen in 2022. While both told the story of the puppet becoming a real boy, Disney’s version opted to remake their animated story for live-action, while Guillermo del Toro’s adapted the original story with stop-motion animation. The latter is universally agreed upon by critics to be the superior adaptation becauseit took some unique risks and created a visually stunning story.
Wolfhard voices Candlewick, sometimes called Lampwick in other adaptations. The character is a boy in the same village as Pinocchio, and while initially seen as an antagonist for the new boy, he and Pinocchio initially bond at a work camp.There’s a certain snideness to Candlewick in his initial introduction that Wolfhard nails, but by the end of the audience’s time with his character, there is also an earnestness to him that helps demonstrate how much he has changed after meeting the former puppet.
Pinocchiowon the Golden Globe, Oscar, and Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
3Rules For Werewolves (2020)
Finn Wolfhard As Bobert
…it will likely be the best movie of Wolfhard’s young career.
Rules For Werewolvesis not a full-length feature film just yet, though there is a feature version in development. Instead, this 2020 picture is a short film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s inspired by the 2015 story of the same name.
The thriller is only 10 minutes long, but it provides a great showcase for Wolfhard’s talentas the story plays out with a dual narrative. On the one hand, Tanya guides the audience through a breaking-and-entering session. On the other, Bobert narrates a story about his time before the existence of the pack, which helps provide a little more context to just what Tanya is doing. The story itself follows a group of young werewolves as they get into a house, take what they need, and move along.
Wolfhard’s role as Bobert speaks to themes of community and loneliness that are inherent in the short, and it’s some of his best work.If the feature film ends up being anywhere near as compelling as the short, and Wolfhard plays the role again, it will likely be the best movie of Wolfhard’s young career.
Though Wolfhard appears in flashback inIT: Chapter 2, his turn as Richie in the first movie is so much better because the audience gets to really see him and all of the young ensemble in action. 2017’sITis a great look at so much up-and-coming talent in the acting world. It’s only a matter of time before every single one of the young cast members becomes a huge star.
Wolfhard’s Richie has his ever-present camera, a wandering attention span, and a foul mouth that could rival an adult in an R-rated movie.There’s an almost frenetic energy in the way Wolfhard plays Richie that makes it seem like he is always on the edge of moving to the next place, the next mystery, the next friend.He always seems like he is in a hurry to get things over with, andWolfhard plays him as someone who is never afraid to make his impatience and his dissatisfaction known.
As Mike grows up, Wolfhard’s acting has matured and expanded…
No list of Finn Wolfhard’s best movies and TV shows would be complete withoutStranger Things.Stranger Thingsprovided the actor with his breakout role, the role he has played for the longest amount of time, and the one thatshows just how much he has grown on screen.
Netflix’sStranger Thingsis one of the most popular series the streamer has ever produced. Following a group of kids in a small Indiana town in the 1980s, the story begins when one of them goes missing after a game ofDungeons & Dragons. From there, telekinetic abilities, secret government laboratories, and an entire “upside down” world spiral out from the mystery in a darkly entertaining story.
Wolfhard’s Mike Wheeler makes his debut in the very first episode as a middle-school kid who just wants to know what happened to his best friend. He welcomes a strange girl who shows up in his place. Mike becomes the person most invested in understanding what is going on in their town and the Upside Down as a whole.
Wolfhard initially plays Mike as the most welcoming of the group, but also the most curious and the one most likely to allow his emotions to rule him. Because of that,Wolfhard’s performance in the first two seasons of the show is a little bigger and louder than it is in the later seasons, where he allows Mike to pull more of his emotions inward.As Mike grows up, Wolfhard’s acting has matured and expanded, and he has been able to make Mike a more layered character than he might have initially appeared.
