Are Stranger Things Stars Just Too Old Now to Pass as Kids in Season 5?

Summary

• After a significant delay in the production of Season 5, fans have expressed concern that the adolescent actors will be too old to convincingly portray teenagers.
• However, it's worth noting that even in Season 4, the actors were already fairly old for their roles, and now they are unlikely to change too much in the next two to three years.

Investing heavily in the long-term development of a show featuring teenage actors is inherently risky as children inevitably grow up. Fans may not be receptive to adult actors feigning youth. Yet, after Stranger Things became a sensation, Netflix disregarded these concerns, pushing the sci-fi series as the premier offering on the platform.

It seems the executives' gamble paid off. Despite the cast growing up after Season 2 and surprising the fandom with their new looks in Season 3, the show's quality ensured that no one abandoned it over such minor details.

However, it would appear that the forthcoming Season 5 may have to grapple with this issue yet again.

All Grown Up

The most recent season of Stranger Things premiered in 2022. After that, the expectation was that Eleven and her friends would return in 2024, but strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA disrupted production schedules. Currently, the earliest expected release date for the final season is late 2025. This delay underscores a key concern - the actors may indeed be too old to convincingly portray teenagers.

Here is a comparison of the actors' current ages and the ages of their characters:

• Millie Bobby Brown, 19 vs. Eleven, 14
• Noah Schnapp, 19 vs. Will, 14
• Finn Wolfhard, 20 vs. Mike, 14
• Sadie Sink, 21 vs. Max, 14
• Gaten Matarazzo, 21 vs. Dustin, 14
• Caleb McLaughlin, 22 vs. Lucas, 14

It's understandable why fans are apprehensive about the actors' ages, especially considering they will have aged even more by the time the next season is released. However, this concern might be somewhat premature. In reality, none of the actors have changed that much since the last season, and their look is unlikely to change drastically over the next two years, either.