For many fans around the world, the biggest 2025 TV premiere (and perhaps the only one that truly matters), is the long-awaited arrival of Stranger Things Season 5, which still has yet to lock down an official date. It’ll no doubt be a mood-shifting experience for those who’ve been yearning the hardest to see beloved characters like Eleven and Mike again, but filming the final season wasn’t actually all that emotional for star Millie Bobby Brown, at least not until the very end.
Having worked with another pair of superstar brothers for Anthony and Joe Russo’s upcoming Netflix movie, the bonkers sci-fi actioner The Electric State, Brown is set to give her breakout character Eleven an official swan song with the new season, as the Duffer brothers have confirmed none of the flagship series’ stars will be the focus of the already ordered spinoff or any future ideas. But it wasn’t until she was nearly finished with the role that the weight of it all crept up.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Brown said despite her general aversion to being vulnerable in a professional setting, the rapidly approaching finish line took her by surprise. As she put it:
It wasn’t hitting me this entire time—until yesterday. I was on set, and I was like, ‘Well, I have one more day left.’ And I started crying. I don’t actually like to cry at work.
To me, that seems like it could be the best-case scenario for an actor’s emotional well-being while filming a movie or TV show. Especially in the case of Stranger Things, which was delayed by the 2023 strikes before its year-long production faced multiple delays and other issues due to weather.
It’d have been easy, I’m sure, for anyone in the ensemble cast to fill up with those same tearful feelings almost immediately, only to spend the entirety of 2024 locked in a melancholy haze over the idea of having to say goodbye to these characters and fellow actors. Perhaps not such a traumatic experience for brand-new cast members like Linda Hamilton, Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux.
Thankfully for the wildly successful young multi-hyphenate, Millie Bobby Brown is with a significant other who supports the idea that she shouldn’t keep her feelings bottled up inside on a permanent basis just for the sake of it. In reference to her hubby Jake Bongiovi, she said:
I’m a really emotional person, but I try to stay super strong. It made me feel so uncomfortable. Jake was like, ‘It’s good, you have to get it out!’ and I just started welling up.
Hopefully the vast majority of things that Brown felt were tied to happy memories and the positives that came from filming Stranger Things with so many other young and like-minded talents. The actress in particular has dealt with far more than her share of non-constructive attention and criticism from not just paparazzi,, but also the more lurid corners of the ST fandom. So there are certainly things to get emotional about on that front as well.
But I can only hope that the next year or so of promoting the final season, as well as formally shedding the gravity of Eleven’s evolution, are as cathartic and meaningful as can be. And that the character destroys Vecna and the entirety of the Upside Down. A large request, perhaps, but a fitting one.
Stay tuned for more info on when exactly Stranger Things Season 5 will arrive, and check out more of the best Netflix series while waiting.
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