Ageing Things: Will the kids from Stranger Things have successful adult careers?By Oliver Johnston| July 27, 2021 TV Blogs There are very few child actors who will continue having successful careers into adulthood. For every Jodie Foster or Leonardo DiCaprio, there’s a Lindsay Lohan, or a Jeremy Jackson (Hobie from Baywatch), who served time in jail after stabbing a woman while allegedly trying to steal her boyfriend’s car, as you do. It’s difficult to say if a child actor wants to continue with their profession. After all, most childhood ambitions evolve considerably before the realities of adulthood eventually punch you in the face. For every kid who wanted to be an astronaut or politician, there’s an adult who resentfully fulfils their duties as a human resources assistant while contemplating violence each time they need to sign yet another birthday card for a coworker they hate. Career Momentum If the pressures of puberty weren’t enough, young performers may feel the need to strike while the iron’s hot. Building momentum from a hit movie or TV show, they can strategically choose roles that demonstrate their current and future potential, assuming they can sidestep drugs/alcohol/stabbing people, along with dealing with online commentary discussing whether or not they’re sufficiently sexually attractive, which definitely isn’t creepy. Puberty can be strange enough as it is. They’re Growing Up This brings us to the children of Stranger Things. The much-anticipated fourth season will land at some point in 2021, after a predictable Coronavirus delay to their shooting schedule. While the young cast has expanded over the first three seasons, it started with a central gang of five: Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, and Noah Schnapp as Will Byers. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content In the decades to come, which of these kids will be fake laughing on talk shows as they flog their latest project, and which are destined to be told, “Hey, you look like that kid from that show” while they work in an unrelated profession and/or get arrested? Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) Imagine being Henry Cavill, the star of successful projects such as his work as Superman in the DC cinematic universe, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The Witcher, and… no, that’s about it. When he joined the cast of Enola Holmes, he found that his boss was 15-years-old. This is because, in addition to starring in the title role, Millie Bobby Brown was also a producer on the film, taking some agency over her career with a shrewd eye on the future. Critics were kind (enough), and box office wasn’t relevant, since the film debuted on Netflix. A sequel is in development. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Additionally, Brown appeared in the hodgepodge that was Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and its well-received followup, Godzilla vs. Kong. Her calendar is fully booked for the immediate future, and as long as she can avoid burnout, Brown’s combination of talent and professional astuteness means she’s likely to have a solid career into adulthood. Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) It was eagerly awaited, but when director John Crowley released his adaptation of novelist Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, the film landed with a damp squelch. Finn Wolfhard plays the younger version of Boris, a Ukrainian immigrant who befriends the film’s young protagonist Theo (Oakes Fegley). Wolfhard does what he can, although his hands are tied, largely due to the film’s simplistic construction of the novel’s complex narrative. It doesn’t help that his Ukrainian accent sounds like Borat had a baby with the Count from Sesame Street. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content However, Wolfhard seems to be fairly calculating with his career progression. He received positive notices for his efforts as the young Richie Tozer in It and It Chapter Two, and he has a major supporting role in the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife. That film should be spared the online venom aimed at the 2016 reboot starring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, which dared to subvert the cherished 1980s nostalgia trip for children who are now middle-aged men, by daring to make the Ghostbusters women. Scandalous! Ghostbusters: Afterlife features the original cast playing their original characters, so it should be perfectly palatable to audiences, which will in turn benefit Wolfhard’s future efforts. If he’s strategic about mixing his defiantly commercial output with slightly more challenging fare (which was probably his intention with The Goldfinch), then he may be able to leverage his commercial and critical success into an adult career. Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) Matarazzo seems to be positioning himself as a personality, instead of as a performer. His main endeavour outside of Stranger Things is as the host and executive producer of Prank Encounters, and the title is self-explanatory. While there’s a cuteness in a young person pranking members of the public, this is unlikely to translate to career longevity as an actor. Still, it allows him to hone his hosting skills, and maybe he’ll be the new Oprah? Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair) McLaughlin may pull away from the pack as the most capable actor and has earned good reviews for his appearance in Steven Soderbergh’s High Flying Bird (91% on Rotten Tomatoes). His highest-profile role away from the show is as Cole in Concrete Cowboy. He plays a troubled youth who (inevitably) learns some valuable life lessons after reconnecting with his estranged horse riding father Harp (Idris Elba), in what sounds like 111 minutes of warmed-up clichés. Instead, it’s a moving tale of redemption, and Variety named it as one of the best movies of 2021 (so far). McLaughlin seems to be erring on the side of critical acclaim instead of commercial appeal, but the kid can certainly act. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) Although Noah Schnapp spent most of the show’s first season trapped in the Upside Down, he was subsequently upgraded to a series regular. Who knows if he even wants to be an actor for the rest of his life? However, unlike his co-stars, he doesn’t seem inclined to build upon the career momentum offered by Stranger Things. His most prominent credit outside of the show is a supporting role in Adam Sandler’s most recent crime against humanity, Hubie Halloween, which was nominated for three Razzie awards in 2021.
