Stranger Things Creators Talk How Much The Cast Has Aged In Season 5
They grow up so fast, don't they?
Stranger Things is infamous for taking very long breaks between its seasons, which has created an unavoidable problem for its main cast. In the first season (set in 1983), youngsters Mike, Eleven, and the rest of their group were 12, which roughly matched the ages of the actors portraying them. But now, almost a decade has passed in real time as Season 5 comes out — but only four years have passed within the show. In the final season (set in 1987), the kids are meant to be about 16, but the actors are all in their early 20s.
Despite the young cast drastically out-aging their on-screen roles, creators the Duffer Brothers don’t think it’s super noticeable. “It’s not as dramatic as people think,” Matt Duffer told Variety on Nov. 21. “There was a scene in Season 4 in Episode 4, the ‘Dear Billy’ episode. Sadie [Sink] is in the basement, writing her letters, and then she walks out of the basement outside, and a year has passed for her, because we shot the two scenes at the beginning and the end of production. And you can’t tell. No one’s ever, ever noticed that. That’s a full year.”
However, Ross Duffer did admit: “If you’re paying attention, you can notice it.” But Matt defended his argument, saying most viewers aren’t picking apart these things: “But my point is, nobody’s ever noticed it. As they get older, it’s less of a dramatic jump. Coming to shoot Season 3 was shocking to me and Ross. And we had to quickly adjust the writing, because we had been writing them too young.”
Many of the large breaks between the show’s recent seasons have been out of the Duffer Brothers’ control. The fourth season was severely delayed by the global pandemic, and Season 5 was halted by the 2023 writers’ strike.
The showrunners admitted they were still have some aging issues while filming the fifth and final season, as 13-year-old actor Jake Connelly’s voice changed during production. “We were recording with Jake, who plays a new character this year, and his voice has already dropped quite a bit since we shot him,” Matt said. “Luckily, there’s EQ technology. We actually were just listening today. It’s fine. We got worried for a second, but it’s OK.”
