DUNGEONS & DEMOGORGONS

THE END OF STRANGER THINGS IS NIGH. SFX MEETS THE SHOW'S CREATORS, THE DUFFER BROTHERS, ABOUT SAYING GOODBYE TO HAWKINS - FOR GOOD

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STRANGER THINGS' FINAL SEASON has been a long time coming. A really long time. So much so that the kids - if you can call them that - are all grown up. Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven, has married a Bongiovi and adopted a child; Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) recently celebrated his 24th birthday; Finn Wolfhard (Mike) released an album of indie-rock tracks and toured North America with his band between seasons of the show.

“It’s okay,” Ross Duffer, one half of the show’s creating duo, the Duffer brothers, assures SFX after we apologise for referring to his adult cast as kids. “I still call them kids, too.”

It's hard not to when we've seen the five of them, rounded out by Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) and Noah Schnapp (Will), grow up on screen. The series debuted on Netflix all the way back in 2016, and now, after multiple delays caused by actors and writing strikes, we return to the Upside Down for a new season, one that truly hits the ground running.

“It’s a very different start than we've ever had,” Ross, sitting beside his twin brother, Matt, explains. “Normally, at the end of the previous season, they've defeated whatever evil, and so we start with them going about their normal lives when something comes in, and that sets off our mystery. But in this case, they lost at the end of season four, and so when we find them, they’re training and preparing and searching for Vecna. They're active from the beginning, so it allows things to get off to a much quicker start than ever before.”