Stranger Things directors were “not loving” the cast going through puberty

When Netflix’s Stranger Things first hit screens back in 2016, it felt like a love letter to 1980’s genre movies like E.T. to The Goonies, following a group of kids challenged with saving the world from various monstrous and otherworldly threats.

The characters age as each season passes, but the actors playing them age even faster. For reference, in the most recent season, the younger characters were just starting high school but the stars were all over 18, except for Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), who was 17.

According to Schnapp, the directors were “not loving” the cast going through puberty. “It was the peak time of change, and puberty and growing up and just everything was changing with all of us, and the directors were just not loving it,” he told Flaunt.

So what did the directors do? “And I remember one of the producers coming up to me and telling me, ‘Noah, is there any way you could just speak in a higher tone and just slouch a little bit? Like, we need you to keep that Season 1 innocence that you had.’ That was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you. My voice is dropping. I don’t sound young anymore.’”

For the upcoming fifth and final season, creators Matt and Ross Duffer have hinted at a time jump, which could help bring the ages of the characters more in line with that of the actors. “I’m sure we will do a time jump,” Ross told TV Line. “Ideally, we’d have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that. So these are all discussions we’re going to have with our writers when we start the room up.'”

Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) discusses seeing himself grow up on-screen

With four seasons under his belt and a fifth on the way, Schnapp has spent his formative years on one of the most popular TV shows on the planet. “It’s just crazy,” he said. “Because I get to watch not only this character, but myself grow up onscreen. Now I’ll be able to always have this archive of me as a 10-year-old actor, and me now, and I’ll be able to show that to my kids, and it’s just crazy that that’ll live there forever.”

He sure has changed a lot over the years…except for the haircut.

Stranger Things season 4 is currently streaming on Netflix. We don’t have a release date for its fifth and final season yet, but it is on the way. We might have to wait a few years though. Stranger Things tends to have a big gap between seasons.

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