Stranger Things season 1 cast: the actors, their characters, and their age at filming

The party

The four boys were auditioned together, to check that the group worked: the Duffers had them read scenes from Stand by Me. Millie Bobby Brown was cast separately, on an audition with almost no text. Noah Schnapp, the youngest, appears only in two episodes and a few visions.

The high-schoolers

Shannon Purser, for whom it was the first role, appears in only three episodes; Barb became despite that the most-mourned character of the season, to the point of getting a posthumous plot the following year. Joe Keery was supposed to leave the show at the end of the season; he stayed through to the end.

The adults

Winona Ryder is the first name attached to the project: her presence made it possible to finance the show. Matthew Modine, the white-haired Brenner, was the second known face; his character disappears in the finale, and will only come back in season 4.

What they have become in the show

Cast markers

How each one was chosen

The first name announced, in June 2015, is Winona Ryder's, at the same time as David Harbour for the still-unnamed police chief. It is Carmen Cuba, the casting director, who suggested Ryder: the Duffers were immediately taken with what the actress represented in 80s cinema. It was her first regular television role. She set only one condition: being able to step away if a Beetlejuice sequel ever happened.

David Harbour until then had only played supporting roles, often villains. The Duffers felt he had “waited too long” for a lead; he dreamed of a “broken, imperfect” antihero. The children arrived two months later: Finn Wolfhard as Mike, Millie Bobby Brown in a role kept secret, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, then Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton. Cara Buono joined the cast in September, Matthew Modine in October.

Composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein had been hired before casting: their first theme demos were played over the actors' audition tapes, which helped the Duffers choose.

The Season 1 cast in one table

What the cast gained

The cast received, in January 2017, the award for outstanding ensemble in a drama series from the American actors' guild, one of the rare prizes voted by peers. David Harbour gave a speech there that stayed famous. At the Emmys, the season was nominated in the outstanding drama series category, David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown in the supporting categories, and the cast itself was honored.

That success changed the rest of the show. Steve Harrington, written as a secondary boyfriend meant to disappear, became a main character; Barb, dead in the third episode, sparked such attachment that season 2 devoted a whole plot to her, the “justice for Barb” one.

The children: more than a thousand auditions

Carmen Cuba auditioned more than a thousand children for the group's roles. The Duffers had them read scenes from Stand by Me, the 1986 film whose spirit the show takes up, to judge their naturalness. Millie Bobby Brown, who had already acted, got Eleven after agreeing to shave her head; Gaten Matarazzo brought to Dustin his own cleidocranial dysplasia, which the show folds into the dialogue.

The young actors' ages at the shoot, between ten and thirteen, set the calendar for the whole show: the later seasons had to follow their growth, and the creators ended up announcing a five-season ending in part for that reason.

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