‘Stranger Things’ Rewinds Its Actors With New De-Aging Effects
The last season of “Stranger Things” has finally started on Netflix, almost a decade after the show first came out. But this time, the team behind the series had to deal with a big challenge: the kids in the cast aren’t kids anymore.
Salon reports that the crew used digital de-aging to make Noah Schnapp look much younger in a new five-minute scene. The moment shows Will Byers telling his own version of what happened when he first got trapped in the Upside Down.
Since Schnapp is now 21, he needed to look like he did back when he was around 10 or 11. Deadline says a young actor named Luke Kotokek performed the scenes on set, and later the VFX company Lola replaced his face with a younger, digital version of Schnapp. The dark setting of the Upside Down helped hide the trick.
This wasn’t the first time the show used this technique. Millie Bobby Brown had the same treatment in season four. For her scenes, child actor Martie Blair stood in before her face was digitally added.
Nobody knows yet if more cast members will be digitally de-aged in season five, but it could happen if the story goes back to earlier moments in their lives.
Even though this kind of visual effect is common in Hollywood, it stands out here because fans have watched these actors grow up for years. As Salon wrote, “Time may move strangely in the Upside Down, but the actors’ hormones do not care.”
Schnapp told Deadline that he tried to help Kotokek understand how to act like young Will. He said, “I asked [Millie] for help, honestly. I was like, ‘How did you work with the kid when you had to do it?’”
He said it felt unusual to guide another actor, but he enjoyed it. He explained that he had to think back to how he moved and behaved as a child so Kotokek could copy it. “It’s a little digital-looking,” he admitted, but he felt the final result still worked.
At long last… we can begin. The trailer for the epic final season of STRANGER THINGS is here pic.twitter.com/w4WuzuCqRs
— sƃuᴉɥʇ ɹǝƃuɐɹʇs (@Stranger_Things) October 30, 2025
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