Those high school fits aren’t fooling anyone. The Stranger Things kids definitely look their age now.
In the weeks leading up to the release of the hit series’ final season, fans and critics alike had been harping on about one thing: aren’t the actors of the Stranger Things main cast a little too old to be playing teenagers now? After all, the original members of The Party — Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin — are meant to be roughly around 16. All four of their actors are well into their early 20s.
With the first four episodes of the final season now out on Netflix, it’s clear that time has left its mark on Hawkins’ most dedicated defenders. Finn Wolfhard towers as Mike at 5’11, looking particularly lanky as he whisks off to school on his tiny, teenage-sized bike, and the same goes for Noah Schnapp as Will. Gaten Matarazzo, despite the Hellfire Club shirt and baseball cap he dons as Dustin, can do nothing to hide his slight five o’clock shadow, especially around the moustache region. Caleb McLaughlin, the oldest of the Party’s actors at 24, looks way too jacked to be a high schooler who plays Dungeons & Dragons. Even Millie Bobby Brown, who’s meant to be playing a 15-year old Eleven, only barely looks the part now that she’s 21.
For Stranger Things’ showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer, age wasn’t their biggest concern when preparing for the final season. In an interview with Variety, the Duffer Brothers noted that the actors’ aging had been an issue only during Season 3. “We had to quickly adjust the writing,” said Matt, “because we had been writing them too young.”
After that, however, the duo felt that the age thing had become less and less noticeable as the show went on. Matt pointed to a scene in Season 4, where Max, played by Sadie Sink, is in a basement before stepping outside. Because the two scenes had been filmed at the beginning and end of production, Sink had aged a full year in between. “And you can’t tell,” continued Matt. “No one’s ever, ever noticed that.”
The showrunners have also employed several digital de-aging tactics to help hide their child actors’ age. In Season 5’s first episode, we get a glimpse of a de-aged Schnapp, achieved by combining CGI and a younger body double, as he wanders through the Upside Down in a quick flashback scene. The Duffers also noted that they used EQ technology to alter incoming actor Jake Connelly’s voice in the final season, as his voice had dropped “quite a bit” since they’d shot him.
“It’s not as dramatic as you think,” added Matt. I find that hard to believe, but welcome to Stranger Things Season 5.
