'Stranger Things' Stars Say Even the Duffer Brothers Were Speechless After the Series Finale: "Nobody Knew What to Do"

'Stranger Things' Stars Say Even the Duffer Brothers Were Speechless After the Series Finale: "Nobody Knew What to Do" By  Tamera Jones  &  Steven Weintraub Published 45 minutes ago Sign in to your Collider account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Summary

• Collider's Steve Weintraub talks to Stranger Things' Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Natalia Dyer, and Charlie Heaton for Season 5.
• The cast discuss the complicated feelings when reading the season finale together and how everyone reacted to the script.
• They also talk about favorite movies, games they play during interviews, and packing up and leaving the set for the last time.

If how much we adore Stranger Things characters has any weight in the likelihood of them kicking the bucket in the fifth and final season, it's not looking good for this crew. Nevertheless, when Collider's Steve Weintraub sat down with Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Natalia Dyer, and Charlie Heaton, they were in great spirits while promoting the Volume 1 drop on Netflix, hitting the streamer on November 26.

This season, the stakes an impossibly high, and Will (Noah Schnapp), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and the rest of the party must come together one last time to face off with Vecna's (Jamie Campbell Bower) formidable Upside Down army. Now that he's brought the Upside Down to the "Rightside Up," running is no longer an option.

Before this decade-long series comes to its end, the stars share what it was like in the room while reading the finale script for the very first time, and what a mad dash it was after the conclusion of the show as everyone packed their things. Check out the full interview in the video above or the transcript below, where Keery, Hawke, Dyer, and Heaton also debate the best Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan movies and Hawke reveals the unusual props she took to remember her time on Stranger Things.

You Really Find Out Who Your Friends Are on Press Days

"It's really helicopter."

Stranger Things Season 5 Trailer still of main gang leaning on a table in WSQK plotting.Via Netflix

COLLIDER: What is it actually like doing press all day? The show is amazing, everyone loves it, but you're still being asked a lot of the same questions. Do you spend the morning dreading, or are you sort of like, “This is fantastic, I’m promoting a show that’s amazing?”

MAYA HAWKE: First of all, I love this question.

CHARLIE HEATON: You're in and out. You have pockets and zones, windows of focus, and windows of totally blanking out.

NATALIE DYER: I look forward to it. I don't know. This has been fun. Like, “Okay, we’re all in a room together.” I feel like that's kind of fun.

JOE KEERY: That is the highlight.

HAWKE: Especially with it being the last season. Just being together.

Have you guys played the junket game at all?

KEERY: Where you add a word in? We did, but we actually didn't even do it.

HAWKE: I actually got it in there at one point when I was trying to recover from my dick joke accident.

KEERY: But that’s a funny game.

It's really tricky, though, when someone gives you, like, “xylophone.”

KEERY: Of course.

DYER: That’s mean! I think there are some that are fair and fun, and then some that are just...

KEERY: You find out who your friends are.

DYER: Yeah.

I've heard many stories, so for people that are watching this, and they're like, “That was a weird word to hear during an interview. So random.”

DYER: That’s probably why.

HEATON: It’s really helicopter.

KEERY: Good job.

The 'Stranger Things' Season 5 Finale Will Leave You Speechless

"There's always someone who knows what to say, and nobody knew."

Vecna touching a scared Will's face in Stranger Things.Image via Netflix

I'm so curious what it was like for all four of you reading the series finale script for the first time. I heard it was all of you guys together, but what was it actually like emotionally for all four of you reading it and knowing that, “This is it. This is a huge chapter of my life coming to a close, and this is the last script I'm going to read like that?”

DYER: Like that.

HEATON: That, yeah.

KEERY: It's complicated, I guess.

DYER: I think it's hard to hold that all at once in your head or your heart. It's like you're aware of it, and I feel there are moments where it really hits you, and I think it's too much, and then you kind of back off. But it's big. I mean, it felt very, like, wow.

HAWKE: To give a slightly different answer than I have been saying, which is just sad, emotional, and things, I was actually so happy, no spoilers, about some of the last scenes and what was happening. I found myself extremely happy with where they took the characters at the end. It was everything I dreamed it would be, and so there was a joy there, too.

HEATON: There was a moment… I said this earlier, but you're reading the episode, and there are tears and there are little scenes where it goes quiet. There are all the things that are happening, and you're experiencing in real time, and then the last page was turned, and everybody looked up, and nobody knew what to do. I remember looking at Matt and Ross [Duffer], and they didn't know what to say. There's always someone who knows what to say, and nobody knew. It was just a moment of stillness between everyone. It was like an acceptance that that was it. It's done. And then we all just started hugging each other, and that was kind of special.

Steve hugging Dustin, both with frightened expressions.Image via Netflix

What was it like, if you don't mind, the last week of filming where you know the ending is coming, and you are, I would imagine, taking mental snapshots of everything or using your phone to take pictures of everything? What was that actually getting into the last day, and how emotional was it for you guys?

KEERY: Again, it's just hard to really do that. I mean, you know it's the last of all these things, so I think more than anything, I was just trying to live in the moment and enjoy what it felt like because I was having such a nice time, and we were all hanging out so much, and there were all these kinds of milestone things happening. So, it's just about soaking it up.

HEATON: Yeah, we did all drive together to work in the van.

DYER: It’s also, I think, the timing of it all. It was also coming up on Christmas and the end of the year. You're wrapping and you're processing all these things, but also physically a lot of people are moving their lives, essentially, from this place that you've been for a year. So, there's just so many layers of things going on.

HAWKE: I remember that part of the last week was really intense. It was like, “It's your last chance to come to the costume shop and pick stuff up. It's your last chance to go look at the props and pick stuff up if you want anything. We're going to get rid of it. Last dinner…” It's a lot of lasts happening all at once, and it was like, “Oh, I’ve got to get all my stuff packed out of my house and into my car, and then we're going to drive.”

KEERY: Logistics.

HEATON: Also, Christmas was coming up.

DYER: Writing letters.

KEERY: Yeah. It was intense.

HEATON: Trying to say goodbye.

KEERY: It was like leaving camp.

I would have gone to costume and props and taken fucking everything.

HEATON: Well, you think that, right? But then you get there and there's so much of it.

DYER: And again, you’re also trying to leave. You’re like, “I’m also moving out.”

HAWKE: You also have to fit all this stuff in your car.

That’s why you rent a truck.

HEATON: The costume house had a whole warehouse of clothing from [Seasons] 1–5. It was the most organized. It's like the scene in The Matrix, where he’s like, “We're gonna need guns,” and it's racks and racks of guns. It was that, and it was just too much. You couldn’t fucking take that shit. [To Keery] You did. You managed.

DYER: Joe tried his best.

HEATON: We all got stuff from it, but you went in there once for about two hours, and then you had to come back and go back another day.

HAWKE: I took a lot of Winona [Ryder]'s socks.

KEERY: Freak.

Do tell.

HAWKE: Just so I could sniff and cuddle them. No, I didn't have a lot of room in my car, and they were cute, and I'm always losing socks.

I think that's a universal problem. I also suffer.

The 'Stranger Things' Crew Geek Out Over Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan

They share their favorites and the special memories behind them.

Custom Image by Federico Napoli

So I've been asking everyone this — this is not about Stranger Things at all — do you have a favorite Steven Spielberg movie?

KEERY: Yeah. I think I do.

Would you like to share it?

KEERY: I’m just making sure there are no other ones I want to say, but I think I have to say E.T., I guess. I think it's my favorite one. Wonderful. Oh, man, actually…

HEATON: You know, it's not my favorite, but it’s a special mention: I really like A.I.

DYER: I was going to say that.

HEATON: Even though I don't know how it did at the time or whatever, I really like that movie.

DYER: I think about that one.

The Kubrick connection. There's no right answer here.

HEATON: Yeah. I mean, E.T. was probably the most…

HAWKE: Formative. I mean, I was going to say E.T.

KEERY: Jurassic Park, though. And Schindler’s List.

He also did something called Jaws.

KEERY: Or Saving Private Ryan.

Again, there's no wrong answer. I'm going to switch to another filmmaker. I'm curious if you're more decisive on this one: Chris Nolan.

KEERY: Charlie, take it away. I know which one you gotta say. Say it.

HEATON: It's The Dark Knight Rises.

KEERY: What?!

Batman (Christian Bale) with a burning city behind on the poster for 'The Dark Knight Rises'.Image via Warner Bros. 

HEATON: But it's Interstellar. It is Interstellar. For 14-year-old me, Dark Knight Rises blew my mind. I saw it in IMAX with my dad. But adult me would say Interstellar.

DYER: Uh-huh, adult you. Okay. I mean, Dark Knight Rises, especially for our generation. I also liked Inception. Another movie I think about a lot. It just comes into my brain.

HAWKE: I was going to say Inception, but I also — this is insane — had the most special experience ever watching Tenet. It was the first movie that I saw after the pandemic. It's my first time back in the theater seat, and I went and saw it with my brother, and I was like, “The movies and people, and it's okay!” That holds a special place in my heart. Inception is my favorite movie, but that one is special for me.

Did you have an answer?

KEERY: I think Inception. Or Memento. Memento’s so cool.

DYER: Oh, wow.

HEATON: What’s yours?

Oh, I really love Inception, but I also love The Prestige, and then I like The Dark Knight. Basically, I like listing all of them so I don't answer.

KEERY: The Prestige is so good, and Bowie’s in The Prestige.

Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 premieres on Netflix on November 26.

Stranger Things

Like TV-14 Drama Mystery Horror Science Fiction Release Date 2016 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix Showrunner Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Directors Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz Writers Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock 7 Images Eleven looking into an opening of the Upside Down with pink light in Stranger Things season 1Jim Hopper (David Harbour) grabbing Jonathan's (Charlie Heaton) shoulders in Stranger Things season 1©Netflix/Courtesy Everett CollectionEleven with cables all over her head in Stranger Things season 4Vecna looking towards Will in the trailer for Stranger Things season 5 (2025)Max and Eleven in Stranger ThingsNetflixStranger Things season 2, episode 2 "Trick or Treat, Freak".MovieStillsDBThe Upside Down in Stranger Things season 5Courtesy of Netflix Close

Cast

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• Millie Bobby Brown Jane 'Eleven' Hopper
• Finn Wolfhard Mike Wheeler

Genres Drama, Mystery, Horror, Science Fiction Creator(s) Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Powered by Expand Collapse

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