Learn more about ‘Stranger Things’ ahead of Season 5 with major plot changes and epic details
spoiler ALERT! The following contains details of “Stranger Things” Season 5, Volume 1.
There’s a new “Stranger Things” kid on the block.
Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Will (Noah Schnapp) may all have grown up in the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” (Vol. 1 now streaming), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t new teens to be terrorized by the monsters of the Upside Down.
Season 5 sees a new generation of kids join the “Strangers” group, led by Mike and Nancy’s (Natalia Dyer) younger sister Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher), who has been in the background for most of the show’s previous seasons, a little girl who is unaware of the big bad monsters that her parents Karen (Cara Buono) and Ted (Joe Crest) are in. But in Season 5, the little Rugrat is now about the same age as Mike and Will were in Season 1 of the show, and she’s suddenly become a bigger part of the story.
Holly is the first of a group of children kidnapped by the show’s big bad Vesna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in the first four episodes of the final season, setting off a chain of events that includes an ABBA song, chainsaws, multiple kidnappings, and a big moment of super-powered self-realization. And it all started with the disappearance of another Hawkins pre-teen.
USA TODAY spoke to Nell Fisher, the 14-year-old British and Kiwi actress who plays young Holly, about what her character’s role in the new episode is like, and what it’s like in Netflix’s science-fiction world.
How does Holly fit into the world of “Stranger Things”?
Fisher: She always knew something was up, but this season she finally gets the big explanation. In terms of context, (creators, Matt and Ross Duffer) mentioned the little girl (Carol Anne) in “Poltergeist”. ….(Holly) started out as the child of the Wheeler family. But even by the end of Volume 1, and especially by the end of the show, she has matured as a person and stepped into her own.
What’s it like being the new kid on such a long-running show?
Part of the wonder of “Stranger Things” is that it really captures the magic of childhood. And I think that’s really at the heart of it. It felt like a huge responsibility, because it felt like a baton was gone. I really enjoyed watching other children perform when they were younger.
Did other actors who started on the show as a kid younger than you give you advice about stepping into the spotlight?
they did. My mom and I were actually having dinner with some of them, and they were talking about how you need to take time for yourself. When you’re in the spotlight and people can recognize you, it’s easy, especially as a kid, to say yes to everything. Yes to photos, yes to autographs. But (sometimes you need to) be able to say, “No, actually this is my time, this is personal time” and say no nicely.
You and Cara Buono, who plays Wheeler matriarch Karen, had a big scene fighting a Demogorgon monster in episode 2 where you had to hide in a bubble bath. What was that filming like?
I think it was my favorite scene of the year. …It was great to be underwater with him, because we were actually underwater and doing stunts. We spent two days in a tank just laughing. It started turning into a competition, and Cara and I were seeing how long we could hold our breath underwater and who would be the last one to come out. There was definitely some rivalry there.
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