Good news for the bah humbugs – the second half of Stranger Things 5 drops on Boxing Day, which means a valid excuse to be antisocial for an entire day. The show is finally coming to an end but I still don’t fully know what’s going on – including how old everyone is meant to be.
The world is an entirely different place since the first season dropped – TikTok didn’t even exist and the UK wasn’t even part of the EU.
Over the nine years since its release, the cast have sort of aged out of their roles, but nobody seems entirely sure how old the characters are meant to be. Even the cast couldn’t agree at first, but now we finally have an answer.
Here’s are the actual ages of the characters in Stranger Things 5
via Netflix
The show began way back in 2016, so the cast have literally grown up since we first met them in Hawkins all those years ago. Set in 1983, he characters are meant to be around 12, which they all were or were close to when filming began.
Yet in season five, the characters are suppose to be around 16 – something even the cast weren’t too sure about until recently.
In an interview with the cast, Millie Bobby Brown admits “Eleven is so much younger than I thought she was, I thought that she was my age.” The 21-year-old added: “She’s like 15/16, in this season she must be 15/16.”
Gaten and Fin chatter, questioning “I thought it was our age” and “I thought we were like 17.”
@celebritiesdailys That’s crazy #strangerthings #strangerthings5 #milliebobbybrown #steveharrington #eleven
Millie then explains Eleven’s age in Stranger Things by working backwards: “In season four, she was 14.
“And also like we’re just, lie, making out. I just feels very crazy. If she was 14 in season four, then in season three she must have been what, 12 or 13?”
Luckily, Gaten swoops in with some clarity, and uses their year in high school to determine how old the cast actually are. He asks: “She must have been like 15 [in season four], were you guys freshmen in high school in season four? Freshman in high school is minimum 15.”
Fin replies “Yeah”, whilst Millie chirps “I didn’t go to school, Gaten!”
Caleb finally pipes up, where he reminds everyone that season three was “just the summer before high school.”
Some comments picked holes in their theory, with one person writing: “‘Freshman in high school is minimum 15’ why do i constantly hear this? I was 14 and so were most of my friends and anyone 15 had a late birthday or got held back.”
Another said what we were all thinking, commenting: “The fact that even the cast doesn’t realise the ages of the characters they’re playing! Just proves that this all got WAY too out of hand!”
So, season five picks up after an 18‑month time jump from the end of four and is set in fall 1987. The core five characters were born in 1971, bar Dustin in 1972, making the core five characters 16 years old.
When you know the timeline, the character ages in Stranger Things 5 does line up, but it’s not immediately obvious.
Phew! Not worth the headache.
Featured image via Netflix
