Gaten Matarazzo is ready for one last trip to the Upside Down.
As Stranger Things prepares to come to an end with its upcoming fifth and final season, the stakes are higher than ever for the citizens of Hawkins, Indiana. And Gaten, who plays Dustin Henderson, just revealed his hopes for the beloved characters.
"There's an excitement there because you always want to wrap it up and see how these characters are finally going to develop one last time and how they're going to finish their journeys," the 20-year-old actor explained on The Tonight Show March 20. "But also, there's like a deep fear of—not only has it been amazing, but it's been pretty great job security for a while."
According to David Harbour, filming for season five isn't expected to take place until this June. But when it does come time to learn their characters' fates, Gaten and his co-stars—including Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp and Sadie Sink—are confident that The Duffer Brothers will finish out the series on a strong note.
"I think it's in the best hands it can be," he admitted. "Matt and Ross know these characters better than I think we might. It's really interesting because they trust us all very much to make our own decisions and go about the scenes the way we've always instinctually wanted to. I've never really given myself the opportunity to think what they might want to do."
Gaten continued, "I'd love to see a good launchpad for growth and I'd love to see these characters thrive and move on from the trauma they've endured over the past few years."
And after spending the last seven years playing Dustin, the Sweeney Todd star is still blown away by the impact the show has had on fans.
"It's interesting to just be reminded constantly how much people resonated with it," Gaten noted. "It's something that's so important to all of us and just has been essential to the growth that I had over all of my teenage years into my 20s. It's the defining aspect of the past 10 years of my life, practically the last decade."
We'll miss you too, Dusty Bun.
While you await season five, catch up on seasons one through four of Stranger Things on Netflix. Plus, here's everything we know about the final chapter, below...
While Max's fate is still up in the air, Matt and Ross Duffer told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) is dead "for real this time." As they said, "He's toast."
Same goes for Eddie (Joseph Quinn), who sacrificed himself to the Demobats to buy time for the rest of the kids fighting. Joseph told E! News he's still hoping to reappear in the show, saying, "I'd be very up for it. But yeah, let's see."
As for Max (Sadie Sink), the brothers aren't giving up on her just yet. "She's brain dead, but yeah, she's alive," they said. "She's blind and all of her bones are broken."
While Max is technically still alive, there's no knowing if she'll ever wake up from her coma. "I have no idea what's coming in five and what that looks like," Sadie said in an interview with Deadline. "Max's storyline is very up in the air, 'cause obviously she's in a coma and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) can't find her in the void. So who knows where she is and what state she's in."
Even Natalia Dyer is confused about who Nancy belongs with. On one hand, she thinks Nancy and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are a good match, but she also sees that Steve (Joe Keery) has grown up. And there's a part of her that thinks Nancy shouldn't be with either one of them. "It's really tough," she told Variety. "I don't know. It feels like she's been in a relationship for a while so maybe she needs some self discovery time."
She continued, "Whatever happens, I would hope that she does it with integrity. I personally had some crunchy feelings about how the whole Jonathan thing started sort of behind Steve's back. I can't believe she did that. I mean, I can."
In the season finale, Will (Noah Schnapp) confirmed he and Vecna are still connected after they were linked to each other in season two. When asked if fans will see the two characters interact in season five, Jamie Campbell Bower told E! News, "We all know by now that Vecna and Will have history. So it would be a joy to to get back in there, as I'll gently put it."
In fact, Jamie remained secretive throughout the entire interview, but promised the Duffers have got it all thought out. "My lips are sealed," he said. "You'll have to wait and see. I think Matt and Ross got something beautiful cooking and they'll let us know in good time."
While Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) initially sought to start anew in California, it seems the Byers family is missing Hawkins and their hometown friends. So, they're leaving their California home and returning to Indiana, alongside Hopper and Eleven, in season five.
"It's mostly in Hawkins, and there's a lot obviously in the Upside Down," Matt Duffer told Collider about their season five plans. "But this is about everyone finally coming back. Coming back together, coming back to Hawkins.
The Duffer Brothers have mostly planned out season five, the final installment, but there's no knowing when filming will begin.
"This last season took two years in total, so who knows how long season five will take," Sadie Sink told Deadline. "The Duffers definitely know the fans will be eagerly awaiting a fifth season, but I don't think they're gonna rush it. They wanna make the best final season that they could possibly make."
They may not rush the process, but it seems they're cutting down on the amount of scenes in the final season. The Duffer Brothers promised the upcoming episodes will be slightly shorter, though they anticipate the finale is going to be another feature-length episode.
"The only reason we don't expect to be as long is, this season, if you look at it, it's almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery," Matt Duffer told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they're struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve's trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in season 5]."
Production is Officially Underway
On Jan. 8, Netflix confirmed that production on the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is underway by sharing a sweet group photo of the Hawkins crew.
"THIS IS A CODE RED," the streaming service announced on social media. "STRANGER THINGS 5 production has officially begun!!!"
In an exclusive interview with E! News, Stranger Things executive producer Shawn Levy promised that season five "will answer all remaining questions," adding, "we are in the business of satisfying viewers."
On Nov. 6, fondly known as Stranger Things Day, Netflix revealed that the first episode of the final season will be titled, "Chapter One: The Crawl."
It appears that Will Byers will be the key to how Stranger Things wraps up its run on Netflix. On what fans can expect from the final season, star Noah Schnapp teased to Forbes, "I think they did a great job with Will's character this season, and beautifully addressed everything they needed to. The way they closed the show is just perfect—the story started with Will, and it'll end with Will."