“Stranger Things” fans have watched the young cast grow up, but one child actor was recast for season 5.
Twins Anniston and Tinsley Price played the role of Holly Wheeler until Nell Fisher took over during season 5. Holly, who is the younger sister of Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), was a minor character in the first four seasons of “Stranger Things.” She plays a much bigger role during season 5, which seems to be the reason for the recast.
The Price twins, who are now 13, don’t have much acting experience apart from “Stranger Things,” whereas Fisher, 14, has starred in films including “Bookworm” and “Evil Dead Rise.” It also makes sense for Holly to be played by one actor instead of two now that she is a more significant character.
“If you watch the previous seasons, Holly barely talks at all. So, we didn’t really have much of a character there,” series cocreator Ross Duffer told Variety in November. “She was just a little kid. Even Season 1, when we’re filming her, it was basically whatever one of the young twins would do, we would just try to capture it in real time. … And then as we found Nell, who’s such a character … we started infusing Nell’s personality into Holly.”
Ross and his brother/collaborator Matt Duffer didn’t know they wanted Holly to have an increased role until they started working on season 5 of “Stranger Things,” which kicked off on Nov. 26.
“We just wanted to recapture some of the feeling of season one, and some of that you can’t recapture unless you have kids, because our kids are not kids any more,” Matt told SFX, via GamesRadar. “They’re not close to being kids any more. So, it was really fun to add Holly and her classmates into the show, because it allowed us to recapture some of that feeling.”
Holly is supposed to be 9 or 10 in season 5 of “Stranger Things.” Most of the show’s main characters, including Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), went from 12 during season 1 to 16 during season 5. The actors playing them are much older, ranging in age from 21 (Brown and Schnapp) to 24 (Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas Sinclair).
Joining the cast of a cultural phenomenon like “Stranger Things” for the final season is a daunting experience, especially in the case of a recast. Fisher told Netflix’s Tudum that she was “extremely intimidated” during her first day on set but found everyone to be “so kind and welcoming.” She also praised her predecessors, the Price twins.
READ MORE: Did ‘Stranger Things’ change Holly Wheeler’s age?
“Holly Wheeler had been played for the first four seasons by Anniston and Tinsley Price, who did a wonderful job creating a character the fan base knows and loves,” Fisher said. “Holly’s been important but on the periphery, and this season, Holly becomes a protagonist. Things start happening to her, and she starts getting things done.”
When it came to casting Fisher, Ross told Variety he knew she was their Holly when he saw the trailer for “Evil Dead Rise.”
“I just saw her in the trailer and I was like, ‘That’s Holly.’ But then I didn’t remember that. [Our casting director] Carmen [Cuba] found her, brought her to us, and I was like, ‘I knew this like six months ago,’” he told Variety. “That would’ve saved us a lot of time.”
While the Price twins aren’t part of “Stranger Things” season 5, they recently looked reminisced about their experience with the show.
“Stranger Things will always be a chapter of our lives that we hold with love and gratitude. We have so many memories, and the people we met along the way will forever hold a place in our hearts,” Anniston and Tinsley wrote via their joint Instagram account in November.
Part 1 of “Stranger Things” season 5 is now available to stream on Netflix. Parts 2 and 3 will premiere on Dec. 25 and Dec. 31, respectively.
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