‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Confirms The Fandom’s Biggest Complaint In The First Minute

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Warning: Includes MASSIVE SPOILERS for ‘Stranger Things‘ Season 5, Part 1!

The long wait – over three years – between seasons 4 and 5 of Stranger Things has presented challenges beyond just frustrating fans. As the young actors have grown older, the show has had to find creative solutions, such as moving the timeline forward and using de-aging techniques and CGI, as seen in the beginning of Season 5, Part 1.

Normally, a film schedule wouldn’t highlight this issue, but because the young actors were 12 at the start of filming and are now in their 20s due to production delays, the time jump is much more noticeable. While a brief time skip and explanations about puberty covered some changes, the opening flashback featuring a digitally altered version of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) really shows how much time has actually passed.

CGI Will Plays a Big Role in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5


Image via Netflix

The fifth season’s first episode begins with a flashback showing Will alone in the Upside Down, cold and shivering while singing to himself. He’s startled by a loud sound – a Demogorgon – and we get a clear look at his face. The scene includes several close-ups of Will, and while it depicts an event from the first season, it wasn’t actually filmed during the show’s original 2016 production.

It’s a strange situation – the character doesn’t quite look like Will as we remember him, but it’s definitely Noah Schnapp playing the part. While his appearance has changed since Season 1, there’s still something familiar about him, but also unsettling. This five-minute scene is crucial, as it reveals Will’s initial encounter with Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) – showing him being chased by the Demogorgon, climbing a tree, falling, and then coming face-to-face with Vecna. It’s more than just a brief appearance; it provides important background for a major reveal in Episode 4.

The unsettlingly young version of Will isn’t created with artificial intelligence. Instead, they used a body double, actor Luke Kokotek, and digitally added Noah Schnapp’s face. Schnapp performed all the facial expressions for the scenes, and Kokotek handled the physical acting. Then, Schnapp’s face was digitally placed onto Kokotek’s body. This is the same technique used to show a younger Eleven in Season 4’s flashback scenes. So, even though it wasn’t Schnapp physically performing those scenes, he still acted out all the emotions – imagining himself running from a Demogorgon in the Upside Down and connecting with Vecna’s hive mind.

Okay, so Finn Wolfhard – I mean, Will Byers – appeared in a recent scene using CGI, and honestly, it looked a little…digital. Finn himself said it wasn’t easy to get perfect, but he thought it turned out okay. The fans are really split though! Some people said he looked like he’d stepped straight out of a video game, and others were convinced they used AI to create him – which, apparently, they didn’t. A lot of us are understanding, though, because it allowed them to add to the story in a way they couldn’t have if Noah Schnapp hadn’t been available. Still, it’s kind of highlighted how long the breaks are between seasons – it’s tough to bring a character back like that after so much time has passed.

Stranger Things’ Flashback Scene Highlights a Bigger Problem

Regardless of your opinion of a particular moment, it highlights a larger problem with the show. The series began in 2016, focusing on kids who were around 12 years old in 1983. Now, in Season 5, it’s 1987 – a year and eight months after the events of Season 4. This means the original kids are now 16, while characters like Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and Robin are in their 20s. Interestingly, the actors who played those kids are mostly in their 20s themselves now.

I have to admit, I’m wondering if those actors might actually be 16 or 17! They certainly look young, and it’s so common for older actors to play teenagers. It’s been happening forever, and I immediately thought of Gabrielle Carteris – she was in her thirties when she played a high school student on Beverly Hills, 90210 back in the nineties! It was pretty surprising at the time, but it’s something we’ve seen a lot.

One of the challenges with Stranger Things is that the young actors were just starting puberty when the show began. As the series continued, they’ve visibly grown up, but the show hasn’t reflected that passage of time realistically. Unlike sitcoms like Full House, where the child actors age along with the show in near real-time, Stranger Things feels off. For example, there was almost three years between seasons three and four, during which the actors had significant growth spurts and changes in their appearance. However, within the story itself, only nine months had passed, creating a noticeable disconnect.

This Might Have Impacted the Narrative


Image via Netflix

It’s unknown whether the actors getting older between seasons 4 and 5 changed the story for the final season. The creators, the Duffer Brothers, have said they always knew how the story would end. However, the year-long lockdown in Hawkins might have been added to the plot to naturally reflect the actors’ aging. While it wasn’t a long time, it makes the show feel more believable, as kids change a lot physically between ages 13 and 17.

As the original actors have grown older, the show has introduced younger characters like Holly and Derek to keep the focus on kids facing dangerous adventures – a core element of Stranger Things from the beginning. While the older characters remain important, they’re now stepping into protective, mentor roles, similar to Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy in the first season. This shift helps the show preserve its adventurous, *Gooniesinspired spirit, keeping younger characters at the heart of the story.

This aligns well with Vecna’s established backstory. In the Season 5, Part 1 finale, he explains he targets children because they are easily manipulated – vulnerable, impressionable, and lacking in strength, both physically and mentally. This mirrors his own upbringing; his father instilled this belief in him, and he was similarly exploited at Hawkins Lab to control other children. He sees Will’s friends as too old and, more importantly, too strong-willed to be useful in his plans.

Luckily, most of the original actors have returned to play their characters, even after many years. The show managed to maintain this consistency – like with digitally de-aged versions of Will in Season 5 and Eleven in Season 4 – even when they needed to use stand-ins for certain scenes.

Despite facing delays, the show has done a great job of staying believable. It’s impossible to actually stop time to keep the young actors looking the same, and they’ve been with the series for half their lives, which is clear on screen. The show doesn’t follow a realistic timeline, but the writers have cleverly adjusted the story to account for the actors growing up, using techniques like time jumps and visual effects. Fans really appreciate these efforts. You can stream Stranger Things on Netflix.

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2025-11-29 20:04