New faces join the fun and horror in Stranger Things 4
MANILA, Philippines — The American series Stranger Things Season 4 has arrived on Netflix, along with a lot of new characters joining the fun and horror happening again in the small, sleepy town of Hawkins.
In the opening episode of the current season, fans are quickly introduced to actors Eduardo Franco (American Vandal, Booksmart) and Joseph Quinn (Game of Thrones).
They are just two of the additional faces in this supernatural thriller set in the ‘80s about Eleven, a girl with telekinetic powers, and her friends, and how they fight off monsters from an alternate universe called Upside Down.
In Season 4, the well-loved gang officially enters high school and experiences the growing pains of navigating young adulthood – apart. The main characters are now spread out in different locations and meeting new people following events in Season 3.
Eduardo plays pizza delivery driver/stoner Argyle, who becomes buddies with Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) in California, where Jonathan relocates to with his mom Joyce (Winona Ryder), young brother Will (Noah Schnapp) and adoptive sister “Jane” or Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).
Charlie, who shared the most scenes with Eduardo on the series, recently said during an Asia-Pacific virtual presscon that his new co-star “totally brought a new flavor to the show.”
Joseph, on the other hand, plays Eddie Munsen, a senior schoolmate who heads the Hellfire Club, also known as Hawkins High’s Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) group, which has nerds and “freaks” as members. Among its new recruits are Eleven’s boyfriend Finn (Mike Wheeler) and friend Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo).
In a separate roundtable interview joined by The STAR, the actors talked more about coming to a show that’s already successful and boasts of a global cult following.
Joseph said, “So, as you know, both myself and Eduardo were new coming into this…. I can’t imagine what that must have been like, you know, when you work on a project and then it comes to find the success that it has.
“As you said, it has somewhat of a cult, I guess. Like, there’s a lot of devotion towards it. So, we kind of know what we are walking into. It’s a huge show and undertaking, and you want to serve the script and all of the stuff,” he added.
But besides the opportunity of being part of a popular series, what they found as a greater honor was getting to work with the showrunners, the Duffer Brothers.
“But that stuff aside, the material is that good. It’s been enlightening working on something like this. It’s been kind of miraculous. The Duffer brothers and the writers — they’re just so talented! To be able to manifest the stuff that they’re trying to do is kind of a privilege that only comes around once in a lifetime, really. It’s mental,” the British actor said.
Eduardo readily agreed, saying: “Absolutely! It’s definitely a privilege, man. It’s an honor. And I’m coming into it with just a huge amount of respect and gratitude. It’s fortunate to be here and to be taken along for the ride.”
Joseph credited the natural chemistry on set between the newcomers and “oldtimers” to the writing of the Duffer Brothers.
He pointed out how they were able to establish all of the new characters “very, very, very quickly.”
“You kind of know who they are from the first scene… and yeah, they brilliantly kind of take these new kinds of energies and throw them into this very dense broth, which is already working and alive, and then, there’s something new in there.”
The new cast members also offered their take on why Stranger Things became a megahit. According to Joseph, it’s how the characters are written plus the “human-ness” of the story despite the supernatural elements.
“I think it’s the overall camaraderie of all the characters. I think it’s very cross-generational. I think the goal is to create a show with these young actors — the glue of the whole thing — and to have these rich and fantastic characters supporting them. I wouldn’t say the morals in the story, but it’s just incredibly human in the face of Demogorgons (monsters) and all that stuff, you know, in its kind of surreal madness. What the show does, there’s a real kind of humanness and togetherness in the whole thing,” he explained.
As for Eduardo, it’s also because of the ‘80s nostalgia vibe. “Obviously, I didn’t grow up in the ’80s but there’s a lot of stuff from it that I absorbed in my childhood. These were like leftovers of what my parents were like living (with). So, movies, music and stuff. That’s what drew me to the first season when it first came out. I don’t know if anybody did, but that’s how I saw it. It just popped in my stream and I put it on, ‘What is this?’ And I was hooked immediately. That was the biggest thing for me,” the American actor noted.
As of writing, Stranger Things 4, also known as the penultimate season, is the No. 1 most-watched series on Netflix Philippines. The story picks up six months after the Battle of Starcourt, which caused destruction to Hawkins. While everyone is still feeling vulnerable and struggling with the aftermath, here comes another threat — more horrifying than ever — from the Upside Down.
Due to its unprecedented length, this is just the first volume as the second half premieres on July 1.
Asked to sum up Season 4 in just one word, Joseph said, “Spooky. Grown-up. Maturing, I guess.”
Eduardo: “I’d say, ‘What?!’”
Joseph: “Yeah, ‘What?!’ is better (laughs).”
Additional cast members are Jamie Campbell Bower (Peter Ballard), Sherman Augustus (Lt. Colonel Sullivan), Mason Dye (Jason Carver), Nikola Djuricko (Yuri), Tom Wlaschiha (Dmitri), Myles Truitt (Patrick), Regina Ting Chen (Ms. Kelly), Grace Van Dien (Chrissy), Logan Riley Bruner (Fred Benson), Logan Allen (Jake), Elodie Grace Orkin (Angela), John Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Rob Morgan (Chief Powell), Amybeth McNulty (Vickie) and the horror legend Robert Englund of A Nightmare on Elm Street fame as Victor Creel.
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