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If it feels like the final season of Stranger Things has been in progress for years upon years, well, that's because it has. Series creators the Duffer Brothers confirmed that the show's fifth season would be its last all the way back in February 2022, and revealed that writers had blocked out the season's plot by fall 2022. However, production on season 5 has been delayed because of Hollywood's writers strike (which ended on September 24) and the still-ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. This means that many of the actors, who began the series in 2016 as literal children, will be in their twenties by the time production picks up again.
This also means that Mike, Eleven, and the rest of the Hawkins crew could look significantly older than they're supposed to in the scope of the story. But don't fret: Stranger Things executive producer Shawn Levy said the team has a plan. “We've already watched the cast of our show grow up in the public eye, and between 12 and 22, every human being changes profoundly,” he told Variety, adding that the show will rely primarily on the good old-fashioned power of hair and makeup to de-age the main cast versus digital time travel in the form of heavy CGI.
"This passage of time is definitely not helping… that being said, our hair and makeup and wardrobe department are pretty exceptional, using costumes and wigs and makeup." They're also planning to lean hard into the throwback vibes this time around. “The ’80s are also our friends in returning these young adult actors to their iconic Hawkins characters,” Levy shared. “So we’re going to use all the all the tools available to us.”
Despite the fact that season 5 of the massively popular series is still a long ways away, we have gotten a decent amount of clues as to what the final installment will hold. For one, we know that most of the main cast will return for the final season, including the original five stars Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) and Noah Schnapp (Will). We also know that the Duffer Brothers have alluded to a time jump, which could be helpful with the whole “passage of time” thing — guess we'll just have to wait and see.
