Note: This story contains spoilers from “Stranger Things” Season 5, Volume 2.
There’s only one episode of “Stranger Things” left to go. And for the first time in nearly a decade, all of the characters in this expansive cast are on the same page.
Ahead of Season 5’s final two-hour battle with Vecna, the first seven episodes tied up some major loose ends. Jonathan and Nancy finally admitted their relationship wasn’t working. Dustin and Steve made up. Max came out of her coma. And after seasons of quiet hand-wringing and a new friendship with Robin, Will came out as gay to his friends and family.
TheWrap spoke with “Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer as well as director and EP Shawn Levy and star Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) about how some of the biggest moments in Volume 2 came to be.
Dustin and Steve’s “If you die, I die” callback wasn’t in the original script
One of the most upsetting parts of “Stranger Things” Season 5 has to do with Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo). Before Eddie’s (Joseph Quinn) death, Dustin was one of the most rational and fun-loving members of Team Eleven. But this season his grief repeatedly led to Dustin picking fights in Eddie’s honor instead of planning to overtake Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). Nearly everyone opted to give Dustin and his grief space save for his best friend, Steve (Joe Keery).
Instead of treating him with kid gloves, Steve called out Dustin in Volume 1 for abandoning the group during a vital mission. Ever since that confrontation, there was a rift between the fan-favorite duo, a rift that was resolved in Volume 2.
While exploring Hawkins Lab in the Upside Down, Steve propped a ladder over some rapidly dissolving stairs in the hopes it could help him save Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton). Before he was able to get on the ladder, Dustin pulled Steve away and begged him not to risk his life, admitting that he can’t stand to lose Steve after losing Eddie.
“I got very lucky because I got a deeply emotional scene between Steve and Dustin in the melting stairwell,” Shawn Levy, executive producer and director of “Escape from Camazotz,” told TheWrap. “They were already beautiful scenes on the page, but they came to life with such sensitivity and heart through Joe and Gaten. That duo is an all-star duo. That’s been clear for years.”
Levy originally directed Matarazzo and Keery through one of the biggest moments in Dustin and Steve’s relationship. In Season 3’s “The Sauna Test,” the duo along with Robin (Maya Hawke) and Erica (Priah Ferguson) found an unnamed Russian box. Fearing what could be inside, Steve warned the group to stand back, prompting Dustin to refuse and say “If you die, I die.” That moment cemented the depth of Dustin and Steve’s friendship.
“It’s sort of this poignant but ultimately comedic beat,” Levy explained.
So when Levy noticed a callback to that pivotal moment wasn’t in the script for “Escape from Camazotz,” he fought to add it in. “It felt like such a moving callback to this duo who’s been through a lot together and with whom we, as an audience, have been through so much,” Levy said. “I wanted to tie this scene to the larger arc of this relationship.”
Tying up Dustin and Steve’s feud in Volume 2 was also essential to the Duffer brothers’ larger plan. It was vital to wrap up every major character arc in the first seven episodes of Season 5, which meant mending this fight, helping Dustin work through his grief and resolving the Nancy-Jonathan-Steve love triangle, to name a few of the loose ends.
“There was so much tension that needed to be resolved [in Episode 8], and we felt like the only way the party had a chance of defeating Vecna would be if they were united in every possible way,” Ross Duffer told TheWrap. “Once they get to that moment, it feels like they’re ready for this final battle.”
Max’s return was one of the most emotional parts of the season
Another major loose end that needed to be resolved had to do with Max (Sadie Sink). The Kate Bush-loving teenager ended Season 4 in a coma after Vecna used her as his fourth gate to open up the bridge to the Upside Down. But after teaming up with Holly in Season 5, Max was finally able to return to her body. Levy highlighted her return as one of his most memorable moments of this season.
“Nothing prepared us for the emotion that both Sadie and Caleb [McLaughlin] brought to that awakening scene. It was so beautiful,” Levy said. “I remember I couldn’t say cut because my throat was too choked with feeling, because I was so moved by what Caleb and Sadie delivered in that moment.”
Noah Schnapp spent months preparing for Will’s coming out scene
The other massive loose end Volume 2 needed to address was Will’s sexuality. As Team Eleven has come to understand Vecna more, they realized he’s only able to control people who are either broken or feel intense shame. That’s why he was able to control Max, someone who felt guilty over her brother’s death, and Will, a kid in the ’80s afraid to admit to his friends and family that he’s gay.
Originally, the Duffer brothers planned to have Will come out in Season 4. But after plotting out the season, they realized there wouldn’t be enough space to give that moment the weight it deserved.
“Thankfully we didn’t [include it in Season 4], because it fit in so much more organically to really center so much of this season around Will,” Ross Duffer said. The team sent Schnapp the scene a few months before they sent the scripts to everyone else and asked for his feedback. “We were really nervous to send it to Noah, because the goal of the scene was to do right by Will, of course, but also to to do right by Noah. The minute he read it and responded to it, we just felt a wave of relief.”
“It was a lot of pressure. I was really nervously, kind of the whole year, waiting for that exact moment — how it’d be written, how it’d be done,” Schnapp told TheWrap. “I remember finally reading it for the first time and just crying in my bedroom and texting them, ‘This is perfect. No notes.’”
Once Schnapp approved the script, he had another obstacle to face: delivering one of the most emotional moments in “Stranger Things” history, as well as the most dialogue he had ever performed in front of a massive audience. Once Will realized Vecna’s ability to control people comes from their shame, he decided to come out as gay to everyone — his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder), brother Jonathan, father figure Hopper (David Harbour), crush and best friend Mike (Finn Wolfhard) as well as all of his other friends — at the same time. Schnapp described the scope of Will’s coming out scene as the “ultimate pressure.” To make sure he got it exactly right, he studied the scene every morning and every night for months.
“Then, of course, there was the pressure of wanting to get it perfect, because there’s so many young, impressionable little Wills out there. You want to empower them to feel like they’re OK to be themselves. You want it to be perfect for them,” Schnapp said. “Also, I had the personal thing that this mirrors my real life a little bit. I never got the chance to sit everyone down and tell them my reality. So now this is kind of that moment. It was a little bit cathartic.”
“Most of what you see in that scene is from the first close-up that we shot of [Schnapp] on the first take, because it all came pouring out and felt so truthful and beautiful,” Ross Duffer said.
But even though Schnapp largely nailed his first take, he had to perform the scene several more times so directors Levy, Ross Duffer and Matt Duffer could capture the right reaction shots from the rest of the cast.
“Noah’s such a kind performer that he really kept giving so much of himself that day to allow other people to react. So by the end of it, man, the poor kid was exhausted,” Ross Duffer said. “He looked like he was going to collapse, but hugely relieved. I think that day was weighing on him.”
Though the Duffers directed this specific scene, Schnapp worked with Levy to figure out how to give his monologue. It was with his help that the actor found moments of levity and hope in Will’s big speech instead of just turning the moment into a “sob fest,” as Schnapp called it. The star also praised his cast mates for being so kind during the trying scene, especially since the scene was filmed in the middle of the night.
“I just remember everyone being so gracious and supportive on that day. Usually it’s chaos when the whole cast is together, and this day you could hear a pin drop. Everyone was so respectful and gave me that space to get into the character,” Schnapp said. “Everyone was exhausted, and they sat through every take of me running through that frickin’ monologue over and over just to show their support. It meant the world.
“When we wrapped and called cut, I remember running to Charlie [Heaton] and him crying real tears. We were just hugging,” Schnapp recalled.
“Stranger Things” Season 5 Volumes 1-2 are now streaming on Netflix. The finale will premiere Dec. 31 at 5 p.m. PT.
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