Success of Stranger Things was “a surprising and overwhelming shock” for cast

The cast of Stranger Things did not anticipate the show being such a huge success, or a success at all. Hear all about it:

Stranger Things was a hit from the minute it premiered on Netflix back in 2016. I remember binge-watching the entire thing in one sitting and immediately alerting all my friends to this awesome ’80s homage horror/thriller series.

But while fans like me were hooked from the moment we pushed play on Netflix, the cast wasn’t all that certain how it’d be received. In fact, they weren’t expecting much at all. And while it sounds preposterous in retrospect, I get where they’re coming from.

Speaking with The Independent, Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler) talked about the uncertainly she and the other cast members had about the future of the series when it first came out. “Nobody knew if it was going to get picked up again after we finished filming season one. There was really an air of, ‘We might never see each other again.'”

I can’t imagine how that must feel, to wrap up a project you pour yourself into and having to wait for viewers’ reactions to see if you still have a job. Add in the fact that most of the cast were kids under the age of 16, and that’s a whole lot of pressure.

“No one had any idea how successful the show would be,” Dyer continued. “There was no preparation – there couldn’t have been, even if we’d known. It was a surprising and overwhelming shock. Then it was like, ‘OK, this is how it is now’.”

Stranger Things was unique in that it blew up pretty based on word of mouth alone, with Netflix not giving it much press backing with the first season. And the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, each new season has become an event, with cast members like Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) and Finn Wolfhard (Mike) becoming pretty big names, appearing in stuff like Enola Holmes and IT.

But they’ll also be returning to Hawkins, Indiana (and beyond) for Stranger Things season 4. Production may be taking longer than expected thanks to the coronavirus, but we already got a juicy teaser revealing the fate of Sheriff Jim Hopper David Harbour) back in February, which feels like a lifetime ago:

Whenever season 4 comes out, I’m certain we won’t be disappointed.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels

h/t Digital Spy