Childhood on Set: How the Cast of Stranger Things Grew Up

The stars of Stranger Things grew up under the camera's watchful eye.

It's remarkable how fast other people's kids grow up. This is especially true on the sets of beloved shows that take years to make. Young actors who land these roles grow up alongside their colleagues 'on the job' — their childhood flies by surrounded by directors, writers, camera operators, and huge numbers of fans.

The cast of Stranger Things experienced exactly this journey under the camera's watchful eye. On the friendships between these future stars, their inner anxieties, and fans' resistance to watching them grow up — read more in this DeTalks piece.

A Small, Bickering Family

The first season of Stranger Things premiered nine years ago, on July 15, 2016. At the time, some of the lead actors had barely reached their teens. During casting for the role of Eleven, Millie Bobby Brown was just 11. Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) and Finn Wolfhard (Mike) were both 13, Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) had just turned 14, and Noah Schnapp (Will) was only 9.

Casting director Carmen Cuba looked for actors around the same age as her own two young sons. In her view, it was important to find kids with a clear understanding of what a person is like at that age, and how vulnerable they are during the transition toward greater independence.

In this way, Carmen brought together not just a group of actors for a successful show, but a team that worked side by side for a decade and eventually started calling themselves a family.

Series co-creator Ross Duffer has described how many of the cast joined the show as children, some as young as ten or eleven, saying it wasn't just a show for them but a defining part of their childhood, and that they grew up in front of the team's eyes, becoming something more than just actors — becoming family, he shared.

Since then, the actors have grown up and changed. Now all adults, they describe having gone through a small evolution in how they relate to each other. At first, everything felt like a 'honeymoon phase,' since everyone was kind to one another and didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But over time, their comments about the relationship grew more realistic. Millie Bobby Brown has described them as basically real siblings by this point, saying they fight constantly, she said.

The lead actress playing Eleven developed an especially warm friendship with Noah Schnapp (Will). The two co-stars appeared together in numerous comedic YouTube videos, where they guessed songs, tested how well they knew each other, and appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.

The friends even made a pact to 'platonically' marry each other if neither had found a partner by age forty.

After wrapping his role as Will Byers, Noah wrote a post sharing life lessons he'd learned from his co-stars. The show's creators, the Duffer brothers, for instance, taught him that the creative process takes time. Winona Ryder (Joyce) introduced him to her favorite classic films. Millie Brown helped him embrace his own 'silliness' and understand that life shouldn't be taken too seriously, while Sadie Sink showed him how to hold onto his inner child.

Anxiety and Therapy Behind the Scenes

But alongside the warm moments, the kids also faced inner anxieties and challenges that came with fame.

Maya Hawke (Robin), whose character appeared in the third season, for instance, has admitted that she tried to stay away from any kind of reaction. Because of her sensitivity, the actress tried not to read either good or bad comments, and simply focus on doing her job.

Therapy helped Finn Wolfhard cope with fame, while for Millie Brown, it was the work itself and the people around her that helped. She has described how simply being there for each other, trusting and supporting one another, brought them closer together, she said.

And although growing up in front of millions of viewers might seem questionable, Millie has said that she wasn't deprived of an ordinary childhood. As a teenager, the actress went through the same emotional experiences as any other kid. But Brown also stressed the dangers this industry poses for children.

She has described not having many friends because of who she is, saying that not having gone to school left her without the best social skills when it comes to people her own age and friendships, admitting that this is something she finds quite difficult but is working on, said Millie.

Gaten Matarazzo leaves Stranger Things behind as an archive of his own growing up — one that will stay with him forever.

He has joked that there will be so many old clips of him out there that it will never leave him in peace, imagining that at around age 30, someone could just search 'Gaten Matarazzo as a kid' and a ton of results would come up, adding that his reaction at that point would simply be 'oh no,' he shared.

The Inevitability of Growing Up

Filming the show took nearly ten years. The kids grew up, but for some viewers, they remained the same children from the first season.

Because of this, Millie Bobby Brown faced a wave of hate on social media. In the comments, people argued that the 21-year-old actress looked 'too grown-up.'

In response, the young woman recorded a talking-head video on Instagram in which she refused to apologize for growing up.

Millie has described starting work in this industry at age 10 and growing up in front of the entire world, saying that people, for some reason, can't seem to grow along with her, and instead act as though she should be frozen in time, looking the way she did in the first season of Stranger Things, adding that she refuses to shrink herself down to fit the unrealistic expectations of people who can't come to terms with a girl becoming a woman.

The cast's rapid growth shocked even the show's creators, the Duffer brothers. Neither of them had kids of their own, so the pace of change caught them off guard. At first, the directors tried, unsuccessfully, to slow the children's growth. At one point, 17-year-old Noah Schnapp was asked to lower his voice and change his posture to look younger and smaller.

Matt Duffer has described telling the team the kids don't need to grow up while they're filming, but admitting, half-joking, that the following year Caleb (Lucas) would actually be old enough to drive himself to set — something he found genuinely unsettling.

But the directors' outlook eventually changed.

Ross Duffer has said that at first, it frustrated them wanting to stop the kids from growing up, but that watching something like Harry Potter made him realize growing up alongside these kids could be exciting. It's something they could actually use to their advantage.