[This story contains spoilers from Stranger Things 5, Vol. 1.]
The Stranger Things cast continued their goodbye tour Thursday night in New York City, when the Netflix megahit saga’s creators and castmembers gathered for a screening and Q&A about the first batch of the final season’s supersized episodes.
Following a showing of the Vol. 1 finale (episode four) of Stranger Things 5 at The Paley Museum, creators/writers/directors Matt and Ross Duffer were joined by stars Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton, Maya Hawke and Jamie Campbell Bower for a chat about what Stranger Things has meant to them, and how the Duffer Brothers hope to stick the landing when Vol. 2 releases its three episodes on Christmas Day, followed by a New Year’s Eve series finale that will also be playing in movie theaters.
“At the end of the day, what people care about are the characters. Ross and I also love monsters and action. You do try to do both,” said Matt Duffer about balancing the sci-fi of the Upside Down with the humanity of the beloved ensemble in the end. “The sweet spot for us, that I always reference, is the ‘Dear Billy’ episode, where you have two things climaxing at the same time. You’re having this visual effects spectacle reaching a crescendo at the same time that Max’s character is reaching an emotional crescendo. If you can have those two collide simultaneously, that’s the ultimate.”
Co-stars Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour, who recently showed a united front after a claim from Brown that Harbour bullied her on set, were initially set to attend the Paley event, and became the subject of reports on Thursday saying the pair pulled out last minute. Brown and Harbour were not attending as of one week ago, however, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter; Brown has a recent arm injury and Harbour had a production conflict.
Sadie Sink was also missing from the cast event, as the fate of her character, Max, still remains up in the air heading into Vol. 2 ever since that “Dear Billy” episode that returned Max’s anthem, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” to the zeitgeist and left Max in a coma-induced state while trapped by the show’s super villain Vecna, played by Bower.
“The end of episode four [Vol. 1] with Noah’s amazing performance, that’s what we were trying to do there where you’re having this huge action sequence set piece but at the same time, it’s hopefully a very emotional moment for him,” added Matt of Will’s terrifying face off with Vecna being the Vol. 1 comparison to “Dear Billy.”
Keery and Matarazzo, who play the fan-favorite duo of Steve and Dustin, also take a more serious turn in the pressure cooker that is Stranger Things 5. “These characters are linked together. They’ve got such a strong bond, so it was new territory for both of us,” said Keery of largely leaving the comedy behind in these final episodes. “It was really ratcheted up right from the beginning of the season and I think that’s because the stakes just feel so high, so coming to work every day and keeping the stakes that high was a challenge. It was always a constant reminder of what we were doing, because the show means a lot to all of us and we wanted to send these characters off well.”
Matarazzo took a moment to gush to his scene partner that Keery is a “strong and smooth actor. Somebody who just has a presence. There’s something so smooth about what you do. There’s a flow and a grace in your head that’s very easy to follow.”
Dyer echoed finding the “humanness” and “groundedness” in this final season, stressing how Nancy’s self-discovery and self-exploration results in her “taking things seriously” in this final run.
And Schnapp spoke about tackling supernatural powers for the first time on the series, including going into what is called Demo-vision as Will comes upon his powers. “The neck got a little tired!” he joked of the physical demands. “The powers were not something I ever experienced or had to work with before. It’s fun because there are no rules. In the script there’s a reference, there’s no guidelines. It just says, ‘Will enters Demo-vision.’ So, how do you do that? It was fun to create and play with that this season.”
As more is learned about how Will’s abduction that kicked off the series plays into these final episodes, Schnapp said that, behind the scenes, he found more of a voice to express his thoughts to the Duffers. “For the first time this season, I really learned how to form my own opinion and perspective and come to the Duffers and say, ‘I think actually this would work’ and ‘This makes sense for Will,’ and learning that your opinion is important and valued,” he said. “When I was younger on the show, I didn’t think I had an important enough position to make a decision like that.”
Schnapp stopped short of giving an example, fearing he might let out a spoiler, and said more will be revealed in Vol. 2. Hawke, however, did weigh in on Robin and Will’s touching conversation referencing his sexuality, summing up her character’s advice with a life lesson: “If you can find one person who accepts and understands you, who doesn’t judge you, that’s all you need to get through life. One person who accepts your whole deal.”
During the Q&A, Bower also talked about Vecna’s final season new layer of special effects, which he described as a stronger blend between CG and prosthetics, and shared some thoughts he was ruminating on when filming Vecna’s other identity, Mr. Whatsit, and his creepier scenes with the children he’s been abducting from the show’s mysterious locale of Hawkins, Indiana.
“Making the kids feel as comfortable as possible in this homey environment to use them as a means to an end,” was his goal, he says of Mr. Whatsit’s world. Of the house that the children get abducted to, he said he found himself asking, “If [Mr. Whatsit] does sleep, where does he sleep?”
Ultimately, Bower said that Mr. Whatsit is “always about creating that sense of safety, both for him and for whoever his victims are. It’s definitely complex. I took a lot of those core [Henry Creel] memories and buried them in Mr. Whatsit, but then also had to create a new presentation of him and use those references.”
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