STRANGER THINGS
ON-SET SECRETS! BEHIND-THE- SCENES INFORMATION! PLANS FOR THE FUTURE! SFX GOES IN DEPTH, UPSIDE DOWN AND INSIDE OUT WITH THE DUFFER BROTHERS ON A GLOBE- SPANNING JOURNEY TO HAWKINS AND BEYOND FOR SEASON FOUR OF STRANGER THINGS
WORDS: DARREN SCOTT
Noah Schnapp (Will) just can’t wait to get started.
WHEN THEY SAID THIS was the biggest season of Stranger Things yet, they really meant it. It’s been three years since the last trip to Hawkins – and the Upside Down – and the creative team haven’t been resting on their laurels. There’s more cast, more creatures, more locations and more at stake.
It’s 1986 and coming up to spring break. SFX got to take a whirlwind tour behind the scenes and on-set via the wonders of technology. We visited Nome, Alaska – which is actually Lithuania, where they’ve built an entire worksite complete with guard towers and a railroad. The sets are absolutely huge. There’s a hangar with a small aeroplane, which we later see crashed.
“We shot all over the place,” Matt Duffer grins. “We shot in Atlanta, as usual, for Hawkins and then we were in Albuquerque for the California storyline and in Lithuania, for the Russia storyline. We called it our Game Of Thrones season because we were just all over the place.”
Creel House in Hawkins is a classic American horror movie home, as seen in the trailer. “What occurs in that house is pivotal to understanding what has been happening in Hawkins all of these years,” Ross Duffer says. “The main villain of the season, Vecna, resides in the attic of the Creel House in the Upside Down.” That attic set is gigantic – the top of a house plonked on one side of an enormous soundstage, surrounded by other sets.
In the props department we have a nose at a microfiche machine with old copies of the Weekly Watcher newspaper, bearing the headline “Victor Creel Claims: Vengeful Demon Killed Family. Murder That Shocked A Small Community”, with a picture of the house. Elsewhere on the front page promises coverage of the “star-studded Bonanza premiere”.
Vecna himself – we discover on our tour – has a 26-step process to getting into costume, with the last instruction being to “slime up”…
“We’re back! And we got some booze too!”
The “Tiffany” jacket is suddenly all the rage.
Another huge set – which we get to see built via a time-lapse video – is the Demogorgon pit. It looks like a prison that goes way up into the sky, with a massive walkway that surrounds it, with greenscreen areas beyond. There’s blood all over the walls… In the Demo Pit we see bodies of what look like Demodogs.
“We always like to introduce a new Demo-Creature, and so we were excited about introducing Demo-Bats,” Matt reveals. “Maybe one of them alone is not very dangerous, but when there’s hundreds and hundreds of them coming at you at the same time, they’re very, very deadly. They also have the ability to act as spies, so you may not even see one in the tree, and it spies you, and then suddenly because everything is a hive mind in the Upside Down, every monster in there knows that you’re there.” Ulp.
Millie Bobbie Brown tears it up on the roller rink.
Eleven’s very proud of her diorama.
„We called it our Game Of Thrones season because we were just all over the place"
MILLIE BOBBY BROWN IS ELEVEN
We’ve been told that this is the scariest season yet…
▶ It’s dark. It’s very scary this season. I know we keep repeating it, and you’re gonna hear it a lot more, because it’s the only thing we’re really allowed to say! I know that it’s very dark this season, and our characters are all split up. But it all ends, everything ties back to the Upside Down. And that is where the scariest part of it all is. There’s so many elements of it.
What’s happening with Eleven and Mike’s relationship?
▶ Eleven and Max formed this very strong female friendship. Max introduced her to standing up for herself and recognising Mike’s faults, and you get to see that more this season, as well as how she kind of has to be more firm with him. But ultimately, we’re looking forward. Her excitement is more toward Mike visiting her for spring break. And that whole storyline is pretty incredible. I can’t wait for you guys to watch it.
So the relationship has advanced, just like our ages have advanced. And I know Finn and I both have experienced personal relationships. And so we can both touch on that on-screen. I think it’s so important to bring those personal feelings, so that really looks true and real, and so that people believe the chemistry that you’re seeing. But it’s been like that since season one. So it’s really easy for us.
Have you developed a liking for anything from the ’80s?
▶ There’s something that I’m very much into. In season three, Eleven’s bedroom was filled with Polaroids and pictures of Mike. So obviously I’m really into film right now. It’s kind of my thing. It’s not really ’80s, but it kind of triggered it on set. I saw it all around her room. I was like, “Maybe I should do that”. So that’s kind of a thing that I’ve been on right now. But on season one I was 11 and I was like, “What is that?”, and it was a record player and I had just no clue what it was. My dad was like, “How do you not know?”, and then I got one and obviously I loved it.
There’s things I definitely learned. I started the role so young, that was 2014. I was like, “I have no idea what this stuff is.” I’ve learned so much about the ’80s but I think I have to agree with Finn, the hair was scary. Also on season one, not to be super in-depth and TMI, but they actually gave us ’80s underwear. What are they called? Tighty whities? The boys used to be like, “Oh, I hate this”.
You’ve grown up being famous because of Stranger Things. How have you dealt with fame?
▶ We’re extremely lucky to have these opportunities. And all we can do, now that we have this platform, is make sure that everyone, every young person around the world, gets to achieve their dreams. So that’s kind of what I’m doing more. I’m focusing on being grateful for what I have, and the platform that I have.
And I know that everyone, all of the young people on the show, we all have our problems and we all have our issues. Something that Finn and I both really relate in is our anxiety. And we’ve always kind of bonded over that. So we naturally have our own things that we deal with. But it’s very nice to turn to the people that have gone through the exact same journey. And you’re like, “I actually feel that too”. And we can bond through that together.