The ‘Stranger things’ band: this is how the 5 protagonists of Netflix’s ‘hit’ have changed

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Hardly anyone seemed to expect much from ‘Stranger things’, starting with the heads of Netflix, who scheduled the series in the middle of the summer -of 2016-, at a time when it was not common to release ‘hits’ during those months either. However, sooner rather than later, word of mouth turned this potpourri (shameless, without subtlety) of influences from the youth and horror films of the 80s into a phenomenon almost on a par with its most obvious referents.

An icon was born and, incidentally, also a handful of young stars, the oldest of all Millie Bobby Brown (aka Eleven), current fashion icon, followed not so far by Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Noah Schnapp (Will) and the rest of the kids of the central clan of the series. In the (few) years since the premiere, their lives have taken a thousand turns.

1. Finn Wolfhard (Mike)

And you, what did you do when you were 19 years old? Hardly as much as Wolfhard. Unable to decide between acting and music, not only has he been filming one of the most watched Netflix series for seven years, or letting himself be seen by films of pretended quality (‘The Goldfinch’) or popcorn (the diptych ‘It’, ‘Ghostbusters : Beyond’), but also is a promise of indie pop with The Aubrey’s, the duo that formed after the end of the group Calpurnia. Quite allergic to fame, he had to be literally blackmailed into revealing that he was dating a girl named Elsie Richter. According to the great Carrie Coon, who played his mother in ‘Beyond’, “Finn has great parents and knows how to recognize that his self-esteem does not depend on that kind of attention.” If you publish on the networks, it is to promote some work or collect the dough for an advertising campaign. Smart boy.

2. Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven/Jane)

Born in Marbella of English parents, she was eleven years old when, forgive the redundancy, she was Eleven for the first time. She was so young that she left people in shock with her maturity, but that does not mean that some aspects of her fame affected her. As she has declared to the British ‘Glamour’, she was not prepared for ‘cyberbullying’, “that people criticized my body, who I am, the kind of person I am”. She has not posted singing videos on YouTube for a long time, but she has been quite busy on Instagram (almost 49 million followers), among other things promoting the vegan cosmetics brand, Florence by Mills, which she launched in 2019, or Louis Vuitton glasses (she has just become an ambassador for the house). In November of last year, she made her relationship with Jake Bongiovi, son of Jon Bon Jovi.

3. Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin)

At the age of 13, he wore Dustin’s cap for the first time. And three years later, long before we met his fictional girlfriend Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo), we met his real girlfriend: Lizzy Yu, future Azula in the real version of ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’. Gaten has a habit of celebrating her anniversaries by posting photos on Instagram: the last, the fourth, on March 4. But she does not use the networks just to show off her girlfriend. He also believes in them as a way to raise awareness about the cleidocranial dysplasia, a genetic disorder that he himself suffers from and that affects bone development, especially of the skull, clavicles and teeth. A video game fan, during the pandemic he became so good at ‘Mario Kart’ that he felt guilty and ended up helping out at the same restaurant where his brothers and cousins ​​work. Good Guy.

4. Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas)

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No, they weren’t all the same age when they joined the band, and Caleb was the oldest of all: 14 years old. But not even the most adult of the boys handled the sudden attention well: three years ago he spoke to ‘PEOPLE’ about nuisances such as “the pressure and having to be exposed all the time”, although he can count on his parents to keep him “with the feet on the ground”. In a recent interview with ‘Teen Vogue’, he declared himself a fatal fan of ‘Euphoria’ (because of his way of “capturing feelings and emotions”) and stated his willingness to produce and even direct his own films and series in the future. Like Matarazzo, he has been an online activist, in his case leading campaigns like #EmbraceYourFace and #BeYourBiggestFan, dedicated to promoting body positivity and self esteem.

5. Noah Schnapp (Will)

Schnapp was only eleven years old when he got into the battered skin of Will Byers, the character of the group that has had the worst time, at least until a really bloody fourth season for Eleven. With the latter, or rather, Millie Bobby Brown, he has built a great friendship, as evidenced by the priceless handful of photos from MBB’s 18th birthday party recently posted on Instagram. Last November, just turned seventeen, Schnapp launched a vegan response to Nutella: To Be Honest (TBC), cocoa and hazelnut cream without palm oil, with extra protein and little sugar. The following month, the young snack ‘entrepreneur’ was accepted into the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. Yes, yes, all pearls. That of suffering, better to stay in fiction.



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