From Stranger things It premiered on July 15, 2016 until the finale that we will see on January 1, 2026, almost 10 years later, one of its protagonists, Millie Bobby Brown, has gone from 12 to 21 years old. In this period the actress not only passed her adolescence, but also changed country, got engaged to Jake Bongiovi, got married, built a house in the countryside and in the same year adopted a little girl. And, although his Eleven is still 16 years old in fiction (there’s a two-year time jump this season), his physical evolution, and that of the rest of his Hawkins classmates, has also been noted in the Netflix series, which will begin airing its final season on November 27.
Plus, in 2016, this nostalgic ’80s production created by the Duffer brothers began as a fun little summer series whose biggest draw was the return of the legendary Winona Ryder. Nobody expected then that the cast of kids would become the true protagonists of one of the most watched phenomena on Netflix, the streaming platform. streaming which began then and whose success was also growing (the fourth season, from 2022, remains the fifth most watched series). Today these little guys have gone from a price of around $250,000 an episode to around seven million dollars a season (Bobby Brown has an exclusive contract with Netflix, so he negotiates on his own).
Despite this overwhelming triumph, it took the creators nearly a decade to finish their story, and this tested the viewer’s ability to believe that their characters are still teenagers (only four years have passed in the series). The best example is to see how they have changed over this time:
Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven)
Millie Bobby Brown was 12 years old when the series began and ten years later everything has changed. But professionally he also became the star of the Netflix algorithm thanks to Enola Holmes (the third chapter has already been filmed), the film saga she produced, Bridesmaid AND The electrical state. Although what he likes most is living his retired life in the countryside, next to his animal shelter, far from those who criticize him for looking too old in his public appearances.
Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler)
Wolfhard was 14 years old when he began his adventure as an actor, and since then he has had a growth path which, in addition to attracting a lot of attention in Stranger thingshe also made him change during the film sagas of Item by Stephen King and in the new Ghostbustersboth franchises that inspired the Duffer series and whose return benefited from the nostalgic success of this production.
Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson)
Dustin’s open palettes and sense of humor have become one of the icons of the first season of Stranger things. His charisma at 14 was clear, but the actor has difficulty carving out a career beyond the series, except in animation and voice acting.
Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair)
McLaughlin, who was already 15 years old when the series premiered and had already been Simba The Lion King Broadway, is one of those that has made one of the most notable changes.
Noah Schnapp (Will Byers)
The actor, who spent much of the series missing in the world turned upside down, is once again one of the epicenters of the series this season, despite having been the subject of multiple online controversies over the past year for his tacit support for the government of Israel: “Zionism is sexy,” he even posted.
Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers)
The legendary star of the Eighties and Nineties has been the great revenge to recover since the first season, another of those actresses that Hollywood treated with contempt on their birthdays. But Ryder did not want, or could not, exploit the attraction of the series, and his roles in recent years have been limited to nostalgia for Bitelchús Bitelchús or the David Simon series The conspiracy against America.
David Harbor (Jim Hooper)
Now he is involved in controversies for his ex-wife Lily Allen’s album and for an alleged complaint from Millie Bobby Brown, but Harbor is the actor who has best been able to exploit the attraction of Stranger things. Until the series premiere he was one of those supporting artists you didn’t really know where you’d seen, but in this decade he became Hellboy and a regular character in the Marvel universe (he’ll be in Avengers: Endgame), got into the Christmas action with restless night (with a sequel already filmed) and the cars in Gran Turismo.
Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers)
In Heaton Stranger things It’s changed his life completely, as he’s been dating his castmate Natalia Dyer since the beginning, but fame has also taken a toll on his addictions. In 2017, the British actor was denied entry to the United States when cocaine was found in his luggage while attending the series’ second season premiere.
Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield)
Although Max Mayfield was introduced in the second season, Sink soon shined and offers began to land on his desk. He is now filming the new Spiderman, before joining The Avengers, and will star in Romeo and Juliet in the London theatre, after starring in Netflix horror films. Street of fear and accompany Brendan Fraser in the heartbreaking The whaleby Darren Aronofsky. And, of course, she played a version of Taylor Swift in the short film/video clip of All too well.
Joe Keery (Steve Harrington) and Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler)
Keery is another of the actors who has best benefited from the success of the series: he participated in it fargoappeared in the blockbuster by Shawn Levy (director of Stranger things) Free boy and starred in his own horror film, with Revelry. His charisma helped. Dyer, however, had far fewer opportunities.
If we know anything from similar sagas Star Wars OR the lord of the rings It’s just that the years end up confirming who will become the real stars of Hollywood. Sometimes the most unexpected names end up being the most unexpected, and in most cases actors end up disappearing after filming an iconic project. Other times they are recovered decades later by a director who remembers them. In any case, only time will tell who the lucky one will be. See you in 10 years, or when Netflix decides to bring back one of these actors to continue traveling in this universe that has given them so much joy in the last decade. Surely someone will still try to recover that lost magic.
