When Stranger Things started, Finn Wolfhard was 13 years old. Now, he’s 22, and after nearly a decade of work, Stranger Things Season 5 will mark the end of a formative chapter in his life. Obviously, that’s a lot to process, and the Mike actor recently opened up about that and why he’d find himself randomly crying from time to time over it.
Earlier this year, Finn Wolfhard said he had an “emotional hangover” after finishing Stranger Things, and I totally get it. While on the Zach Sang Show, he discussed wrapping up production too, recalling the polar opposite emotions he’d feel, saying:
My disposition around the cast and the crew and everything that whole year was two things. One thing was me just trying to be as completely optimistic as I could be. And anytime someone was feeling bummed about it ending or like whatever it was, I would just try to like ‘Oh we’ll worry about that when we’re done.’ like ‘let’s just hang out and kind of try to live in the moment as much as I could.’
He continued by saying he just wanted everyone to “live in the moment” and take it all in with the most positive attitude they could. However, on the flip side, the emotions would hit him out of nowhere, too, as he described:
And then there was the flip side of that which was there were times where I could just be in my house, and I have no idea why this would happen, but I would just walk around – it would be like 15 minutes where I – and I’m not usually like this – but I would just walk around my house crying like an insane person.
Listen, the Stranger Things cast and directors have been open about how emotional this final season has been. For the core cast of kids, they all spent formative developmental years on those sets, and they quite literally grew up in front of our eyes. This team is also making one of Netflix's most successful shows. Obviously, it takes a lot to process something like that, and I’d imagine there’s some grief involved too, as you say goodbye to such a massive project.
Well, while Wolfhard claimed he had no idea why the emotions would hit him out of nowhere, he did think of a reason for the tears. He confirmed what I had assumed, and noted that trying to process the end of something so big and important is really hard:
It was so weird, and I think it was my brain’s way of subconsciously grieving this end of the show that was so important to me.
He continued to discuss why the show was so important to him. Saying that he was “someone who really wanted to make films,” he got a lot out of seeing people like the Duffer Brothers at work behind the scenes. Now, all these years later, he’s directed his own movie, Hell of a Summer, which came out on the 2025 movie schedule.
Wolfhard also noted that he’s been deeply impacted by his co-stars, too, citing Joe Keery as someone who was “hugely influential.”
So, trying to process all of those relationships, moments and feelings was overwhelming. Wolfhard said he thinks that’s why he’d “shut down” every once in a while:
All this coming to a close, I couldn’t process it. So I would just basically shut down. And then it would be totally fine and I would go and walk around the street, because a lot of us lived, the cast, we all lived in the same neighborhood.
Well, that’s really sweet! I love that they lived so close to each other and really seemed to savor their last year of working together.
Now, I’m looking forward to hearing more reflections on how much this experience has meant to Wolfhard and this cast as we approach Season 5’s November 26 premiere on the 2025 TV schedule. I imagine that they will feel these intense emotions all over again as they promote the upcoming episodes and fans watch them with a Netflix subscription. However, I hope the one that prevails is optimism and joy over this incredible project they all worked on.
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