Finn Wolfhard has spoken about the emotional conclusion of the Netflix series "Stranger Things," which he described as "pretty depressing" after being a part of his life for a decade. The final season wrapped production at the end of 2024, with episodes set to premiere in 2025.
Wolfhard, who portrayed Mike Wheeler, recalled the filming process for the final season, noting a collective sense of denial among the cast. "Everyone was having a great time, hanging out... All the cast lived in the same neighborhood. We would go to each other's houses all the time," he told The Guardian. As filming progressed, the reality of the show's end set in.
"There was a sense of denial, it seems," Wolfhard said. "The vibe was almost like, 'Oh, we'll back next year' but once we got about halfway through, everyone started to realise like, 'Oh. This is it' and then everyone just really valued the time we all had together for that last half."
He also reflected on his first "real" kiss, which occurred on-screen with co-star Millie Bobby Brown during the filming of the first season in 2016. Wolfhard was 12 years old at the time, while Brown played Eleven. He stated that he was not nervous about the scene, aiming instead to "do a good job" as part of his character's storyline.
"I'd kissed a girl when I was maybe in second grade, but it wasn't real at all. So, weirdly, I was not nervous for the actual kiss. I just was like: 'Oh, it's part of the thing, part of character'," he explained.
Wolfhard has previously discussed the challenges of navigating childhood fame. In a 2023 interview with GQ, he mentioned experiencing panic attacks and anxiety around age 15, attributing some of this to the intense demands of his career at a young age. He suggested that if he could revisit that period, he would seek professional therapy to help cope with the rapid rise to stardom.
"I don't think I'd ever go back and do something over, but maybe I would go back to when the show first came out and blew up, and I would directly put myself into therapy," he told People. "But it was so crazy and overnight, that there was not really any time to think about that."
Despite the difficulties, Wolfhard acknowledged that ending the series felt appropriate. "It was pretty depressing for everyone when it ended... but it feels absolutely right that we've ended at the time that we did," he concluded.