Stranger Things Cast: From Child Stars to Hollywood Icons as Final Season Arrives
The Evolution of the Stranger Things Cast
As the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is released in three parts in November and December 2025, the world watches not just the conclusion of a beloved series, but the transformation of a cast that has grown up before our eyes. When Netflix dropped Stranger Things in July 2016, the cast were unknowns riding bikes through fictional Hawkins. Nearly a decade later, they’ve transformed into producers, directors, parents and fashion icons who’ve built empires far beyond the Upside Down.
A Reunion Nearly a Decade in the Making
The season stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Cara Buono, Linda Hamilton, and Jamie Campbell Bower. Filming wrapped on December 20, 2024, marking an emotional conclusion to a year-long production that defined the cast’s lives.
Where the Stars Are Today
Brown, now 21, has become unrecognisable from that child star. She’s a wife, mother and production mogul. Brown and husband Jake Bongiovi announced in August 2025 that they’d adopted a baby girl. Meanwhile, Matarazzo, 23, has executed a “reverse-Hollywood” move—while peers chased film franchises, he doubled down on theatre. He completed major Broadway runs in Sweeney Todd (as Tobias Ragg) and Dear Evan Hansen (as Jared Kleinman), with 2025 voice work for Animal Farm.
As of 2025, the 21-year-old Schnapp is attending the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in entrepreneurship and innovation; he is scheduled to graduate in 2026. The young cast member has balanced his studies with completing the final season of the show that launched his career.
The Significance of Season 5
Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. The final season promises an epic conclusion to the story that captivated millions worldwide.
Its original stars — all of them now adults, yes, even Ferguson — spent the entirety of 2024 in Atlanta filming the final eight episodes of the show, culminating with the feature length series finale that the Duffers, who wrote and directed the episode, have promised will provide a definitive end to every character’s story. For fans and cast alike, this bittersweet ending represents the close of a remarkable chapter in television history.