Spoilers ahead for “Stranger Things” seasons one through four.
When the first season of “Stranger Things” premiered in 2016, it quickly became one of Netflix’s most successful original shows.
Nine years later, the sci-fi series following a group of kids who uncover the existence of a dark alternate dimension is approaching its fifth and final season, which will be released in installments through the end of 2025.
While only four years have passed in Hawkins, Indiana, since the events of season one, a decade has elapsed for the real-life cast members — many of whom hadn’t hit puberty when the show began filming.
Continue reading to see each main character in season one, compared to their forthcoming appearances in season five.
Eleven, aka El, was introduced as a mysterious runaway with supernatural abilities.
Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) grew up in Hawkins National Laboratory, where she was subjected to experiments as part of a secret government program.
In season one, she escaped the lab and encountered Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) during their search for Will (Noah Schnapp). She’s called Eleven because the number is tattooed on her arm, but Mike gave her the friendlier nickname El.
El learns to embrace her powers.
As the series has progressed, El has learned to nurture and expand her powers. She has repeatedly rescued her friends from the Upside Down’s many threats — but along the way, the gang also discovered that El was the one who built the bridge between dimensions.
As a young child, El opened a gate to the Upside Down in order to banish One, previously known as Henry Creel, the first child test subject at Hawkins Lab. He later became Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the monstrous puppeteer of the Upside Down.
Vecna remained intent on killing El, and when she accidentally opened another gate years later, he began attacking Hawkins remotely. The Demogorgon from season one, plus the Mind Flayer from seasons two and three, were both at his command.
By the end of season four, Vecna has managed to open four new gates in Hawkins.
When the Upside Down begins leaking into the Rightside Up, causing Hawkins to be quarantined by the government, El realizes she’s in for one last showdown with Vecna.
Will Byers vanished in the first episode of season one.
From the very beginning, Will (Noah Schnapp) was a central figure in “Stranger Things.”
The series premiere was titled “The Vanishing of Will Byers.” In that episode, while biking home at night, Will was attacked by a monstrous creature, which his friends later dubbed the Demogorgon.
Despite Will’s attempt to flee, he was kidnapped and taken to the Upside Down. He managed to stay alive for about a week by singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash and by communicating with his mom, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), through flickering lights.
Using her telepathic powers, El located Will’s hiding spot in the Upside Down. He was eventually rescued by his mom and Hawkins Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour).
Will still has a dangerous connection to the Upside Down.
When Will was stranded in the Upside Down, he was captured and assaulted by Vecna, cementing his connection to the so-called Hive Mind.
Will can still sense Vecna’s presence, even when he’s in the Rightside Up. Season five trailers suggest that Will will play a significant role in Vecna’s plot to destroy Hawkins.
Mike Wheeler formed a close bond with El during the search for Will in season one.
Mike (Finn Wolhard) became the group’s de facto leader in season one, motivating his friends to search for Will while dealing with the complicated emergence of El.
Because El was being hunted by government agents, Mike secretly sheltered her in his family’s basement. The two formed a close bond that quickly blossomed into a romance.
Mike is still preoccupied with keeping El safe.
Mike and El kiss near the end of season one, and by season three, they’re in a full-blown relationship.
Despite dealing with distance and communication issues throughout season four, the pair are as close as ever heading into the final showdown with Vecna.
“Mike is back in leadership mode,” Wolfhard told Netflix of his role in season five, “and he’s taken it more upon himself to help plan out these missions, and he and the whole gang are devoted to finding Vecna and ending this.”
Lucas Sinclair was the group’s voice of reason in season one.
Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) was the most suspicious of El after she showed up in season one — partially because he was jealous of her bond with Mike, and partially because she was being evasive about her role in Will’s disappearance.
Lucas even split from the group to continue the search for Will on his own, but quickly reunited with his friends when he realized they were in danger.
Heading into season five, Lucas is struggling with the fallout from Vecna’s curse.
Season four focused largely on Vecna’s plan to invade Hawkins, which the group referred to as “Vecna’s curse.” The villain targeted vulnerable teenagers in Hawkins, killing them one by one.
With each murder, Vecna opened a new gate to the Upside Down. When the group realized their friend, Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), had been marked for the next death, they hatched a plan to use her as bait.
Lucas was beaten and nearly killed in the season four finale while trying to protect Max. She died in his arms, was miraculously revived, then fell into a coma.
Lucas will continue to protect Max in season five. Trailers show Lucas stationed at Max’s hospital bed, and some clips show him carrying Max’s limp body as he flees from a Demogorgon.
Dustin Henderson was the crucial fourth member of the D&D party.
Much of the language in “Stranger Things” was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, a popular fantasy role-playing game. Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin consider themselves a “party” — that is, a group of people who take on different roles to complete a campaign.
Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) became the fourth member of their party after he moved to Hawkins in fourth grade.
The boys often use D&D vernacular to make sense of the supernatural events in Hawkins. Dustin is the party member who knows the most about D&D lore and other mythologies. He’s also a science prodigy with a knack for radio tech.
Dustin is now mourning his friend Eddie, who died in the season four finale.
In season four, Dustin grew close to Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), the president of the school’s D&D club.
Eddie was falsely accused of killing another student, who was actually killed by Vecna. After learning the truth, he tried to assist Dustin and the rest of the gang in taking down Vecna. Eddie was killed in the process.
Dustin had come to idolize Eddie, so watching him die — and not being able to clear his name — will undoubtedly affect his mentality going forward.
“Dustin is in a bit of a funk,” Matarazzo told Netflix. “We’re all dealing with the day-to-day issues of what it is to try to keep everybody safe and figure out where Vecna is, while having a lot of unpacked baggage from the events in the previous season.”
Max Mayfield joined the party in season two.
Although Sadie Sink wasn’t a member of the original “Stranger Things” cast, her character became an essential member of the party upon her arrival.
In season two, Max moved to Hawkins from California. She instantly charmed Lucas and Dustin, though Mike and Will were slower to accept her.
Mike told Max that everyone in their party already had an established role: he was the Paladin, Will was the Cleric, Lucas was the Ranger, Dustin was the Bard, and El was the Mage. (Some fans argue that Will transformed from the Cleric into the Wizard after his time in the Upside Down.)
In response, Max dubbed herself the “Zoomer,” which isn’t an official character type in D&D but speaks to her wit and quick instincts. The title is also fairly literal: Max can skateboard, and she can drive, which comes in handy for a hasty getaway.
As far as we know, in season five, Max is in a coma.
In season four, Max offered herself as bait in the group’s plot to kill Vecna. After the plan went awry, Max fell victim to Vecna’s curse and was killed.
However, El had telepathically transported herself into Max’s mind and seemed to resurrect her. Although Max’s body came back to life, she has remained in a comatose state.
Mike’s older sister, Nancy Wheeler, got pulled into the action when her best friend vanished.
In season one, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) was mostly preoccupied with her new boyfriend, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) — until her best friend, Barb Holland (Shannon Purser), vanished without a trace.
Like Will, Barb was attacked by the Demogorgon, but unlike Will, she was killed almost instantly. She was the second person to go missing in Hawkins, but the police assumed Barb was a runaway teenager.
Nancy knew better and began investigating. She recruited the help of Will’s older brother, Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), and quickly discovered the existence of the Upside Down.
Nancy is eager to lead the charge against Vecna.
Throughout the series, Nancy grapples with survivor’s guilt. She led the charge against Vecna in season four, urging the other teenagers to invade the Upside Down and kill him.
Although their efforts failed, Nancy is poised for another bout of supernatural battles in season five.
Steve Harrington, Nancy’s boyfriend, was introduced as a popular jock.
According to “Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer, Steve was originally intended to die in season one. He was painted as a typical high school jock: handsome, charming, popular, and more concerned with causing trouble than with Barb’s disappearance.
However, Steve’s love for Nancy inspired him to shape up — and unwittingly dragged him into a face-off with the Demogorgon.
By season five, Steve is an integral member of the team.
Just as Keery won over the Duffer brothers, Steve won over “Stranger Things” fans.
Even though his relationship with Nancy fell apart in season two, Steve formed a strong bond with Dustin and protected the kids when the Upside Down reared its ugly head again.
According to Netflix’s official character description, “Steve heads into the final season bracing for the ultimate battle. But he also must deal with a grieving Dustin.”
Jonathan Byers, Will’s older brother, was an outcast among his peers.
In season one, Jonathan was determined to find and protect his little brother. In flashbacks, the two were shown to have a very close bond, especially since their dad left the family. Jonathan didn’t seem to have many, if any, other friends.
Although he was initially led to believe that Will was dead thanks to an elaborate government cover-up, Jonathan teamed up with Nancy to uncover the truth of the Upside Down.
The pair eventually joined forces with El, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin (with an assist from Steve) to figure out how to save Will.
Jonathan and Nancy are still a powerful team.
Jonathan and Nancy began dating after she broke up with Steve in season two. Despite spending time apart in season four, their reunion in that season’s finale proved their bond had remained strong. Season five clips suggest the couple is back to being inseparable.
Joyce Byers was desperate to find her son after Will’s disappearance.
While the kids ran around searching for Will in season one, Joyce was communicating with him directly.
Joyce figured out that Will could make lights flicker from the Upside Down. She painted letters on the wall and strung up Christmas lights so he could send her messages, ignoring everyone who assumed she was crazy. She eventually ventured into the Upside Down, entering through a gate in Hawkins Lab, to rescue her son.
Joyce is one of the few adults in Hawkins who knows exactly what’s going on.
As season five begins, hardly any of the parents know that their children have been battling supernatural monsters for four years. Mike’s parents, Lucas’ parents, Dustin’s mom, and Max’s mom have never been clued in. We’ve never met Steve’s parents, but it’s safe to say that they’re clueless, too.
Joyce may have an unhinged reputation around Hawkins, but she’s the rare adult who has a clear idea of the threats they’re facing.
Jim Hopper was introduced as the Hawkins police chief.
Hopper (David Harbour) grew up in Hawkins and returned to the small town after the death of his daughter.
The gruff but lovable police chief played a pivotal role in season one’s search for Will. Through his efforts, Hopper slowly realized that Hawkins Lab was concealing a conspiracy.
After breaking into the lab with Joyce, he convinced the scientists to let them conduct a rescue mission through the gate that El opened. They succeeded and brought Will back home.
Hopper is now El’s dad and self-appointed protector.
Hopper and El formed an unlikely bond in season two, while she was still hiding from the lab’s government agents. He took her in and was eventually able to adopt her.
In the season three finale, Hopper was nearly killed after an explosion in a clandestine Soviet lab. He was subsequently captured by Soviet soldiers and presumed dead by everyone in Hawkins, including El.
The pair was reunited in the season four finale, so Hopper will presumably reprise his protective role heading into season five.
“Hopper’s been back from Russia, and for about a year, he’s been training for these Upside Down crawls, basically prepping for a final battle with Vecna,” Harbour told Netflix. “He doesn’t tell the people he loves exactly what he’s planning, but he’s gearing up for something big.”
Holly is the youngest Wheeler sibling.
Mike and Nancy’s youngest sister, Holly, was 3 years old in season one. She was portrayed by young twins, Anniston and Tinsley Price.
Holly played a very small role in “Stranger Things” up through season four. She was mostly shown sitting on the hip of her mom, Karen Wheeler, or eating with her family at the dining room table.
However, in one pivotal scene in season one, Holly noticed a pattern in the Christmas lights that Joyce strung up — meaning she could sense activity in the Upside Down. She also noticed the Mind Flayer moving through the trees in season three.
Holly was recast for season five to allow for a larger role.
Holly should be about 7 or 8 in season five, based on the show’s canonical timeline. Instead, she is portrayed by 14-year-old Nell Fisher.
Holly was presumably recast to an older age so she could be more involved in the show’s horror elements and action sequences. Now that Vecna has set his Hawkins-destroying plan in motion, everyone in town is in danger, even those who never knew the Upside Down existed. In a season five teaser clip, Holly and her mother are shown coming face-to-face with a Demogorgon for the first time.
In fact, Matt Duffer told SFX that Holly is a “centerpiece” in season five.
“Once you see the full season, you’ll have a better understanding of why it was so important to add her to the cast,” Duffer said, via GamesRadar.
“One of the reasons was, we just wanted to recapture some of the feeling of season one, and some of that you can’t recapture unless you have kids, because our kids are not kids anymore. They’re not close to being kids anymore,” he continued. “So it was really fun to add Holly and her classmates into the show, because it allowed us to recapture some of that feeling.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
The post ‘Stranger Things’ premiered 9 years ago. See what the cast looks like then and now. appeared first on Business Insider.
