Stranger Things has addressed how show will deal with Joe Keery's age as filming begins for season 5

Stranger Things has addressed how the hit show will deal with Joe Keery’s age as filming begins for season five.

Yeah, I know, they’ve only just started filming again. But the SAG-AFTRA strikes caused a bit of delay after season four was already delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

But this long delay between all the series means the actors have, well, aged quite a lot since the start.

Stranger Things first hit Netflix back in 2016, when Millie Bobby Brown started playing Eleven at age of 12.

Now, the star is 19. Feel old yet?

And understandably, with the actors now so much older than their characters, fans of the show are wondering how on earth it’s going to work out.

One pointed out: “The ‘kids’ are all 24 and the ‘teenagers’ are 32.”

I mean, the kids aren’t quite that old but it’s still close – Caleb McLaughin who plays Lucas is now 22, and Sadie Sink who plays Max is 21. But yeah, they’re not exactly ‘kids’.

And the ‘teens’ aren’t teens either, Natalie Dyer who plays Nancy is 28 and Charlie Heaton who plays Jonathan is 29.

Netflix

But none of them are quite as far from being a teen as Joe Keery.

The actor plays Steve Harrington and now, as filming for season five begins, is 31. And no, that’s not old, but it’s not exactly a young teen either.

Ageing of the cast couldn’t exactly be delayed along with the show, and the Duffer Brothers previously acknowledged they’d have to address that.

Season three took place just a year before the fourth – but there ended up being four years between them.

Chatting with TV Line, co-creator Ross Duffer said: “I’m sure we will do a time jump.

“Ideally, we’d have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that.

X/Netflix/Ross Duffer

"So these are all discussions we’re going to have with our writers when we start the room up.”

With the fifth series now confirmed to have began filming, Matt Duffer also explained the pair are open to change.

“We learn a lot every time we make a [season],” he said.

“We’ve learned a lot just working with all of our new actors and the ones that we’ve worked with for a long time over this year [making Season 4], so I’m sure it’ll change a little bit from that outline.”

So, looks like the fifth and final season will see a jump in time from where we left off. Let’s just hope they stick the landing and give us a good finale.

Topics: Netflix, Stranger Things, TV and Film, Twitter, Social Media, Celebrity

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_