Ever since Stranger Things premiered in 2016, Caleb McLaughlin has been making a name for himself in Hollywood. However, the Netflix show was hardly his first role. The New York native got his start on Broadway before transitioning into TV and movie roles.
Despite his ongoing acting projects, Caleb hopes to one day take his talents behind the camera.
“I feel like I’ll never stop being a student. I’ll never stop wanting to learn. I’ll never stop wanting to be excited about this. I learn from everybody that I’m around,” the actor told Teen Vogue in March 2022. “I want to produce my own films, TV shows, maybe direct in the future. I realize I love visuals. I talk about visuals a lot and camera and transitions and just how things look, I’m into that. Maybe even cinematography.”
But for now, he’s killing it as Lucas Sinclair on Stranger Things, and from the sound of it, there’s a lot fans can expect to see from his character as the show comes to an end!
“Right now, I feel like he’s in a really sad place, but he definitely has some type of chip on his shoulder,” Caleb told IndieWire in July 2022 about what’s next for Lucas. “I feel like he doesn’t believe it really happened, and I don’t think he realized that it actually happened to him. This is the first time that Hawkins gang lost. He can’t really grasp what the situation is.”
Going forward, he hopes viewers “hearts [will] be broken — again” during the final season.
“I feel like a good story ends. Not sad, but just a real ending. Happily, ever after — that’s like, like back in the day, that’s Disney Channel, that’s Nickelodeon,” the actor shared. “We’re Stranger Things. We’re raw. This is not PG-13 anymore, this is rated R. We gotta bring it home. I know season 5 is going to be darker, if anything — if that’s possible.”
Other than his acting projects, Caleb has a budding music career on the horizon. He released a single titled “Soul Travel” in May 2022 and shared that more songs are on the way.
“People may know me as an actor first where I portray other people and all these different characters, but this time this is Caleb,” he told Complex ahead of the song’s release. “The music is my own thoughts and allows me to have full creative expression.”
Click through our gallery to see how Caleb has changed over the years.
Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.
