The actors from Stranger Things might look too old to play the ages they are portraying by today’s standards, but the writers for the show are pretty sure that they’ll still be able to pass as teenagers.
The time between the beginning and end of the hit Netflix show is only supposed to be about three years, however, by the time it’s finished it will have been closer to ten years since the first season dropped on the streaming platform. We’ve seen the cast go from literal children to adults in that time.
However, the problem is, they sort of look too old to play the parts they’re supposed to now. For example, Millie Bobby Brown is 19, yet she’s supposed to be playing a 15 year old. Same goes for the rest of the cast who are all about 20 to 21 years old. Surely they’re too old to portray high school kids, right?
Well the writers don’t think so. In fact, the Stranger Things writing room account shared some actual footage of teens in school during the eighties to prove their point.
Aside from being an interesting look back at an age gone by. There’s no denying that kids just looked older back then. Maybe it’s the hair? Maybe it’s being alive during a time when Reaganomics was a thing? Who knows, but it’s safe to say that a few twenty somethings could easily pass off as kids in this school. In fact, a few of these kids look like the kind of kids Eddie would hang out with.
Fans were pretty much in agreement that the tweet certainly made a good point. Many actually praised the show for being better than others when it comes to high school portrayals:
“The ST folks look like people I went to school with! But then again, I am Eddie’s age- if he were a real person and graduated HS in the 80’s.”
“If people can accept Demogorgons then I am sure they can accept the kids being a little older […] and also your so real for this tweet haha”
“Oh I missed the “our”. […] I thought this was about all shows. Stranger Things is way better at most shows when it comes to this.”
For the most part the actors being too old for their characters hasn’t really negatively impacted the story in any way. As demonstrated by the footage, they still look to be the age they are portraying. Plus most of the writers on the show are Gen X so they were kids in the eighties. If anyone knows what a high school looked like back then, it would be the writers.