'None of us knew it was going to be a big show': Finn Wolfhard on Stranger Things
Finn Wolfhard plays Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things.
As a young adolescent on his first major TV show, Finn Wolfhard had high hopes for the series he’d recently been cast in. Set in the Midwestern US town of Hawkins, Indiana, the show - called Stranger Things - was a clever blend of the supernatural, sci-fi, mystery and drama.
Within less than a day of it coming to the growing streaming platform that was Netflix in the summer of 2016, Wolfhard was recognised by a fan of the show in his native Canada. It was the first hint that he was about to be part of something special, he recalls now, having thought that Stranger Things might attract a cult audience.
“I don't think that anyone could have expected the reaction that it got out of people,” says Wolfhard, 22, almost a decade later, as he reflects on upcoming finale. “None of us knew that it was going to be a big show, especially how it hit pop culture as a whole - it was instant. Twenty-four hours from the show coming out, I was in Canada, and I had gotten recognised.”
The young cast - many of them working onscreen for the first time - had a sense that filming of the first series was going well, but nobody, says Wolfhard, could have anticipated the phenomenon the series would become.
“We all knew it was a good show, or at least we were confident in it, and believed and felt that it was a good show. I mean, we were biased. We're making it - obviously we're going to say that.”
He feels that nobody could really have prepared for the scale at which Stranger Things is viewed. “I think that all you could really hope for is that it finds its niche, and it would work for a certain audience. We were thinking it to be more of a cult classic show than being as global as it's become.”
Now Wolfhard and his co-stars - who’ve grown up together onscreen - are ready for their final close-ups. It’s been emotional, but also a joyful time, he says of the experience of filming the last series.
Created by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, Stranger Things became an instant hit and a cultural phenomenon as soon as it debuted on Netflix. A love letter to the 1980s and the screen stories that resonated with that generation, the series took off from the disappearance of a young person from a US town as their friends and loved ones get pulled into a dramatic series of events.
Regarded by many as among the greatest TV series, Stranger Things sparked an animated spin-off, a Broadway show, books and numerous other tie-ins. The fourth series garnered over 140 million views - but the show’s reach extends beyond its own successes. In 2022, the powerful use of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill in a key scene propelled the British artist’s song back onto music charts and Spotify lists worldwide, almost four decades after it was first released.
Over the coming weeks, the final series will come to our screens. For the young cast who have grown up together and formed friendships over the course of the show, it will be an emotional finale.
“It was a year-long shoot, and then, leading up to the finale, we didn't really read the script until the last two months,” says Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler. “We were in the rhythm of things, and had been shooting for a while, but it was an incredibly emotional experience to read all that for the first time and see the way that all of our characters’ arcs ended in real time.”
Being part of the success of such a huge show at a young age would be a challenge for even the most well-adjusted young people. The fact that they were in it together with their friends and co-stars was a great help, says Noah Schnapp, who plays Will in the series.
“It was amazing to be around each other. Sometimes I feel like child actors, if they do get any recognition or fame, they have to do it alone. They don't have another group to lean on, and we had each other to lean on, which I think is really, really important and also important for survival for our careers and as people. It was a really positive experience, but also being thrusted that hard into the public eye that young is in some ways overwhelming. The fact that we had each other was great.”
Wolfhard agrees, and feels it was that sense of youthful camaraderie that enhanced the entire experience of the last decade. “It was needed. It's great because I guess you'd say it was an unorthodox type of experience growing up. To do it without a group of people around the same age who were going through the same thing, I think, would make things way more complicated. I can only speak for myself, but I think I'm a better person for it, because of these guys.”
What are the cast’s memories of filming the final scenes, and what was the atmosphere like on set during those final scenes? “It felt different from all the other days, obviously - this is something that I think everyone was anticipating the whole year,” says Wolfhard.
“We all talked about it throughout the whole season. Once we were actually there, it's interesting to film something in that way, because you also have to focus on it being scene work, and being professional still. We have a show to make. We have this scene to film. And so we were sliding between these two worlds of hugs and melancholy. But then also, like any other day, trying to get good takes done.”
For the youngsters at the beginning of the series who are now young adults, the last days of filming were special - not least because of the sense of a reunion of everyone that was involved in the production through the years. The young people who were children when Stranger Things first came into being were also encouraged to bring their families, says Schnapp.
“All of our parents were invited back, so they were all there again, which is very nice, because we all had them on set with us when we were children. It was very special, really a great day.”
- 5 will debut on Netflix in three volumes: Four episodes on Wednesday, November 26, three episodes on Christmas Day, and the finale episode on New Year’s Eve
