Stranger Things started filming in 2015. That’s eight years ago. That might not seem like too long a time, but it is if your show is centered on teens. Stranger Things sure is, and it’s been noticeable for a while that its main cast is getting a little long in the tooth, at least to be playing high schoolers. Throw in a pandemic and two semi-congruent strikes and time is not working for them. But for their fifth and final season, they’ve got a plan to stop time dead in its tracks.
In a new interview with Variety (in a bit caught by Entertainment Weekly), series executive producer and sometime director Shaun Levy opened about the difficulties of keeping its cast looking high school age.
“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,” Levy grumbled. While he confessed “this passage of time is definitely not helping,” he remained optimistic, After all, the show’s “hair and makeup and wardrobe department are pretty exceptional,” and that they could use “costumes and wigs and makeup” to keep the cast looking high school age.
“So we’re going to use all the tools available to us,” Levy added.
Mind you, the SAG-AFTRA strike is still going, meaning every day the Stranger Things kids are becoming less and less kid-like. Most are in their early 20s, though Millie Bobby Brown is still 19.
Speaking of, Brown has spent the last year telling the press that she’s “very ready” to be done with a show she’s been doing since before she was even a teen, and that her commitments to the Netflix behemoth is holding her back from other projects. So you hear that, AMPTP? Find a new contract and let these young actors get back to work before they start looking like the 20- and 30-somethings still playing high schoolers in Grease.
