Once Stranger Things finally releases its final season, expectations will be quite literally sky high.
The show is Netflix’s most successful original show in the history of the streamer, a cultural icon that has spawned multiple spin-offs currently in the works as well as an award-winning stage show.
The final season will have so much to live up to, with star Maya Hawke having said the season is like ‘eight movies’.
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One aspect where they will have a lot of ground to make up for though, is justifying the decade it has taken the Duffer Brothers to make just five seasons of television.
This is particularly noticeable by fans of the main kids, in particular, Millie Bobby Brown.
In newly released BTS footage of the final season, Bobby Brown says: “So I started when I was ten. I’m now turning 20 years old.”
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Despite this, and all the actors looking entirely different from the tiny children who started the show, only a few years have passed in Hawkins.
One fan quoted the footage saying: “'I started filming when I was 10 and now im turning 20’ mind you this is season five…..can we please never do this with a tv show again.”
Another said: “Sorry but taking over a decade to film five seasons…42 episodes TOTAL………that's embarrassing!!”
The actors began the show as young children, and are now all young adults.
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As well as Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo are both 21, and Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin are 22.
Even Noah Schnapp, the youngest of the crew, is 19, whilst the characters are meant to be about 16 or 17.
Shawn Levy, who is an executive producer on Stranger Things, said of the issue surrounding the age gap: “We've already watched the cast of our show grow up in the public eye, and between 12 and 22, every human being changes profoundly."
“This passage of time is definitely not helping. That being said, our hair and makeup and wardrobe department are pretty exceptional, using costumes and wigs and makeup.
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“The ’80s are also our friends in returning these young adult actors to their iconic Hawkins characters.
“So we’re going to use all the all the tools available to us. And I know our cast is as eager to get back to work as the rest of us.”
As of yesterday, July 15, Netflix confirmed that the final season was halfway through production.
Production began in January, and the show is expected to return some time in 2025.
Topics: Stranger Things, Netflix, Millie Bobby Brown, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin