Joe Keery
“Stranger Things”: The main actor is relieved about the end of the Netflix hit
Joe Keery has played the lead role of Steve Harrington for the past seven years
© Courtesy of Netflix
Joe Keery plays Steve Harrington in Stranger Things. Now the main actor talks about the final fifth season of the Netflix hit – and why he is relieved about the end of the series.
With over 1.8 billion watched hours in the first 28 days after release, “Stranger Things” is one of the most successful Netflix series ever. But after a total of five seasons, the popular series about the fictional small town of Hawkins and the notorious dark world that lives there is supposed to come to an end in 2024.
Joe Keery: “It feels like it’s about time.”
While fans of the last season’s mystery series are looking forward to the series finale with a mixture of anticipation and sadness, leading actor Joe Keery sees the upcoming end as positive. Speaking to Women’s Wear Daily, the 31-year-old says of the end of Stranger Things: “It feels like it’s about time.” Even if it’s hard for him to stop and he shows his “whole career” and “all the possibilities that [er] “Had since then”, he sees the upcoming final as a relief. He wants to use the newly gained free time to devote himself to other projects – including his music career.
Of course, he also feels a little sad, “because it was an incredible journey with great people,” as he describes. That’s why it’s complicated, says Keery. He says, “There’s a sense of relief and one of sadness.” That’s why his goal for the upcoming shooting is “to absorb everything as best as possible and not to take anything for granted, because it’s been an incredible journey with great people,” he enthuses and concludes with the words: “Everything has a beginning, a middle and an ending. It will be nice to see that ending too.”
“Stranger Things” creators talk about the final season
Keery has portrayed the role of Steve Harrington since the first season, which was first released on Netflix in summer 2016. At first he played the small town bad boy, but over time he proved to be a good friend and supporter of the group in their fight against the underworld. Seven years have passed since his first appearance – a period in which the “Stranger Things” actors have largely outgrown puberty and have developed both visually and in character. A major challenge for the creators of the series, especially given the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
The first episodes of the current fourth season were released in summer 2022. The sequel was originally slated for release later this year. But the strike has pushed the release date of the final, fifth season to summer 2024 at the earliest. In order to be able to deal with the rapidly aging cast, the showrunners are planning to incorporate a time jump into the plot that will change the appearance of the actors – and thus also the characters –should explain.
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Producer siblings Matt and Ross Duffer told TVLine they’re almost certain there’ll be a time warp. “Ideally we would have [Staffel 4 und 5] filmed back-to-back, but there just wasn’t a practical way to do it,” the showrunners explain. However, as it’s not yet clear when the strike will end, filming is still pending.
Source: “TVLine”, “Women’s Wear Daily”