The kids are getting antsy.
Gaten Matarazzo is urging “Stranger Things” to speed up production. The much-anticipated Season 5, initially set to begin in May 2023, only kicked off filming in January due to various setbacks.
Matarazzo, who has played Dustin Henderson on the Netflix series since its 2016 debut, opened up about the final episodes to TMZ on Wednesday.
Now 21, it’s challenging to maintain the illusion of being a teenager, having started on the show at 13.
When asked if there’s a rush to release Season 5, he responded, “That’s the hope, yeah.”
“Well we want to get it out as quickly as we can, you know what I mean? It’s just a big season so it’s taken a bit to shoot and there are a little bit of delays from the pandemic and both of the strikes and stuff,” he added.
Matarazzo emphasized that the cast is “going full force” to deliver the final season to viewers.
When asked should be killed off, he joked: “I’m gonna go for myself I think—why not?”
“I hope towards the end of it, if it’s gonna happen, I want to be in it as much as I can,” he continued. “I want to hang out with my buds as much as I can.”
In February, he previously said at MegaCon Orlando that the show would be “better” if it killed off more characters.
“It might sound messed up but we should kill more people,” Matarazzo said at the time. “This show would be so much better if the stakes were much higher, like at any moment any of these kids can kick it. I feel like we’re all too safe.”
Matarazzo, who started on Broadway, knows how pivotal the show has been for his career on screen.
“It’s the most life-changing experience that I think one could have,” he told TMZ.
When asked if roles have been funneling in, he replied: “That’s the hope.”
“It’s hard working right now during the season because, you know, it’s pretty much a full-time job,” he added. “I’ve been incredibly lucky in that department, for sure.”
Between Seasons 4 and 5, Matarazzo returned to Broadway as Tobias in “Sweeney Todd” alongside Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford, with his last show in November 2023.
The actor isn’t the only “Stranger Things” star who is ready to leave Hawkins. Millie Bobby Brown has said she’s “definitely ready” to say goodbye.
“I feel like there’s a lot of the story that’s been told now,” the actress, 20, who plays lead Eleven, told Seventeen magazine in March 2023. “It’s been in our lives for a very long time. But I’m very ready to say goodbye to this chapter of my life, and open new ones up.”
Maya Hawke, who plays Robin Buckley, told Entertainment Tonight that it’s “heartbreaking” that the show is ending.
“It’s the end of a really long journey,” the “Inside Out 2” actress said. “Longer for some of my castmates, even, than for me. So it’s really sentimental. But as a late addition cast member, I feel like it’s my job to be here to facilitate their feelings and just be grateful and excited to have been a part of it at all.”
Hawke revealed on the June 28 episode of the “Podcrushed” podcast that the final season’s episodes are lengthy.
“We’re making basically eight movies,” she stated. “The episodes are very long.”
This differs from what showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer previously said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast in 2022, noting that while they don’t expect all of Season 5’s episodes to be as long as the previous season’s, it will still be action-packed.
“Characters are already going to be in action, they’re already going to have a goal and a drive, and I think that’s going to carve out at least a couple of hours and make this season feel really different,” Matt said at the time.
Producer Shawn Levy, who directed one of the episodes in the final season, told Total Film magazine, “There’s no way to be contiguous with Season 4 and not, frankly, expand scale and depth.”
The show also stars Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, David Harbour and Winona Ryder.
Season 5 is expected to debut in 2025.
