CryingGoodbye to Hawkins! Everything the ‘Stranger Things’ Cast Has Said About the Show Ending: Quotes

What Millie Bobby Brown Has Said

“It’s gonna be hard, of course,” Millie said of the show ending during an appearance on Good Morning America in October 2022. “It’s like my high school, I grew up on the show. They’re like my school friends. You know, it’s gonna be hard. But I’m never gonna not see them again, and I’m sure Netflix will make it last for as long as it can, and … it is just so much a part of my career and so formative, and I’ll always remember my experience with Stranger Things.”

In August 2023, she told Women’s Wear Daily that she thinks she’s ready to say goodbye to El. “I think I’m ready. It’s been such a huge factor in part of my life, but it’s like graduating high school, it’s like senior year. You’re ready to go and blossom and flourish and you’re grateful for the time you’ve had, but it’s time to create your own message and live your own life.”

What Finn Wolfhard Has Said

“I definitely am excited to finish Stranger Things and see what’s out there after,” Finn Wolfhard told EW in June 2023. I’ve tried not to think about it or process how sad it’s gonna be, obviously, but it’s gonna be a graduation of sorts for all of us, for the cast and a lot of the crew, too. A lot of the same crew has been working on [the show] since the first season. So, it’s gonna be amazing and pretty heavy, but really fun, always.”

What Noah Schnapp Has Said

“I mean, just wrapping Stranger Things, so bittersweet,” Noah told Collider in March 2023. “I mean, it was obviously kind of what made me, I guess, as an actor, and I’ve grown up on the show.”

He continued, “I first started on it when I was 10 and now I’m like an adult, so it’s crazy. But, I’m really excited to get shooting. The last season looks really good, and when it’s over I’m definitely gonna be crying and upset, but excited for what the future holds.”

What Caleb McLaughlin Has Said

Speaking to TODAY in May 2023, Caleb said it’s a bittersweet end to the series. “It’s sad, but I think it makes sense that the show is ending,” he explained. “You don’t want to over milk the cow.”

What Sadie Sink Has Said

“It’s going to be awful. It’s going to be horrible,” Sadie said of the show’s conclusion during an interview with the Today Show in January 2023. “These kids, this entire cast and crew, it’s family. People say that all the time, but I genuinely mean it. And to think that we have to say goodbye to that security and knowing that we’re going to be seeing each other for another season?”
She added, “It’s scary and sad, but I think it’s exciting to kind of move on to the next chapter, I guess.”

What Gaten Matarazzo Has Said

“It’s interesting to constantly just be reminded how much people have resonated with it,” Gaten Matarazzo said of the series while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “I mean, it’s something that’s so important to all of us and has just been essential to the growth that I’ve had over all of my teenage years into my 20s. It’s the defining aspect of the past 10 years of my life, practically the past decade.”

After host Jimmy Fallon asked if it was “bittersweet” to have to say goodbye to the show, Gaten replied, “Of course it is. There’s kind of an excitement there because you always want to wrap it up and see how these characters are going to finally develop one last time, and how they’re going to finish their journeys. But also there’s like a deep fear. Not only has it been amazing, but it’s been pretty great job security for a while. Back to freelance.”

What Joe Keery Has Said

“It does feel like it’s time. It won’t be easy for it to end,” he told Women’s Wear Daily in an interview before the SAG-AFTRA strike, posted in August 2023. “I mean, I owe my whole career to being on that show and all the opportunities that I had since are because of that show.”

He continued, “So it’s very convoluted. There’s a sense of relief, there’s a sense of sadness. I guess my goal is to just really soak it up as much as I can while we’re doing it, and not take any of it for granted because it’s been an amazing ride with such great people. And then once it’s done, move forward and try to just hold on to the joy that we had when we were making it … Everything has a beginning and the middle and an end. It’ll be nice to have the end of this too.”

What Maya Hawke Has Said

“Well, it’s the last season, so people are probably going to die,” Maya Hawke, who plays Robin, told Rolling Stone in September 2022. “I would love to die and get my hero’s moment. I’d love to die with honor, as any actor would.”

She added, “I love the way that the Duffer Brothers love their actors. The reason that they write so beautifully for me and for everyone else is because they fall in love with their actors and their characters, and they don’t want to kill them. I think that’s a beautiful quality that they have, and I wouldn’t wish it away.”

What Natalia Dyer Has Said

“It’s incredibly bittersweet,” Natalia told Cosmopolitan in June 2022. “I’ve spent most of my 20s on this show, which has been a pivotal time in my life. We’ve been such a real family. It really is such a gift to be able to return to these characters and to work with people you like.”
She continued, “In some ways, we all care about the story, and all good stories must come to an end. Next season for us is going to be very emotional. I’m sure there will be tears flowing often. There’s a lot of appreciation and I think all of us really love each other, love working together, and just love this show. I hope we were able to send it off in the best way possible.”

What David Harbour Has Said

David gushed over the final season’s script and its writers during an August 2023 interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.

“I know what it is,” he said of the ending, which he was able to read before the 2023 Writer’s Strike. “I know where we net out and it’s very, very moving. That is the term I will use.”

“After where Season 4 ended — when you watch us on that hill looking at the ash and the smoke fires — we’re going to start somewhere after that,” he said explained. “So you’ve gotta imagine the world is a different place.”

“They’re terrific, as per usual. They continue to outdo themselves, these currently on strike writers called the Duffer brothers,” David said in an interview prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike of the shows’s writers and creators. “It’s a hell of an undertaking, too. I mean, the set pieces and the things in the scripts that we saw are bigger than anything we’ve done in the past.”