Why major Stranger Things character had actor replaced between seasons

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have admitted they were ‘really nervous’ about the recasting of a pretty major character in the franchise.

Well, it’s been a long-running theory that she was quite a major part anyway, but (and this is a slight spoiler) it’s totally confirmed within moments of this fifth and final season.

With the first four episodes having now dropped on Netflix, the second is literally titled: ‘The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler’. Yep, after being the youngest little Wheeler kid for all these years, she now seems to be a key figure in the Stranger Things plot.

And with it being over three years since we last had new episodes, and nearly a decade since the show actually began, the creators ended up deciding to recast the child actor playing Holly.

Who originally played Holly Wheeler?

For the first four seasons of Stranger Things (from 2016 to 2022), the role of Holly was shared by identical twin sisters, Anniston and Tinsley Price.

The character is, of course, the younger sister of Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and daughter of Karen (Cara Buono) and Ted (Joe Chrest).

Holly has quite literally grown up over the years on the show, and therefore, so have the twins. There’s been the odd time jump between seasons, too, meaning the show has been able to match the cast’s real ages, but that’s not quite as easy with the young Wheeler kid.

Plus, it’s rumoured among fans that the twins simply didn’t fancy acting anymore.

Holly was originally portrayed by twins Anniston and Tinsley Price. (Netflix)

Who is Holly Wheeler now?

So, for what seems like a number of reasons from the show’s creators, Holly has been recast with British-New Zealand actor Nell Fisher stepping into the role.

Having just turned 14, she’s got decent credits under her belt already, having appeared in Evil Dead Rise and Bookworm. So, it’s likely she’ll be well equipped for taking on such a major part in this fifth and final season.

With that horror film experience already, it seems like a good fit for the star to be taking on the Upside Down. Plus, many fans think there have been subtle Evil Dead references in the world of Stranger Things, but I don’t want to give any spoilers…

Speaking on the red carpet for the show’s premiere, Fisher said she’s had an ‘amazing experience’ and described it as ‘surreal’. Getting to work with the directors and crew involved at such a young age is 'mind-blowing’ to the star, having been ‘pretty nervous’ ahead of filming.

Nell Fisher now plays the youngest of the Wheeler kids. (Netflix)

What have the Duffer Brothers said?

With Stranger Things having first started off with the cast being so young (Millie Bobby Brown was just 12 when season one landed), the show’s creators wanted to bring a bit of that back.

“We wanted to recapture some of the feeling of season one, and some of that you can't recapture unless you have kids, because our kids are not kids any more.” Matt Duffer told SFX.

“They're not close to being kids any more. So it was really fun to add Holly and her classmates into the show, because it allowed us to recapture some of that feeling."

And when it came to casting the new Holly, they reflected on how the young Wheeler didn’t used to be much of a ‘character’.

“She was just a little kid. Even Season 1, when we’re filming her, it was basically whatever one of the young twins would do, we would just try to capture it in real time,” Ross Duffer told Variety. “So we didn’t really have a voice for her. In the initial scripts, Holly was a little shyer and a little more withdrawn. And then as we found Nell, who’s such a character…”

“ And more of an extrovert,” Matt chimed in, as Ross concluded: “We started infusing Nell’s personality into Holly.”

The creators admitted they were ‘really nervous’ about the recasting and knew it needed to be ‘an incredible actor’ while also resembling the original twins enough.

Matt added of Fisher: “I remember seeing the Evil Dead Rise trailer and seeing her. I had not seen the movie. I just saw her in the trailer and I was like, ‘That’s Holly.’

“But then I didn’t remember that. [Our casting director] Carmen [Cuba] found her, brought her to us, and I was like, ‘I knew this like six months ago.’ That would’ve saved us a lot of time.”

Stranger Things 5 Volume 1 is now streaming on Netflix.