Because of the show's fraught production schedule over the last few seasons, it can be tricky at times to keep the "Stranger Things" timeline straight. The first season begins in November 1983. The core group of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) are in the fall of their seventh-grade year, while Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) are sophomores in high school. Steve Harrington
(Joe Keery), who starts the series as more of an ineffectual villain before reforming his ways, is a junior, which would make him 16 or 17.
Since the first episode, the show has covered about two and a half years, with season 2 set a year after season 1 in 1984, season 3 taking place in the summer of 1985, and season 4 covering the spring of 1986. An official synopsis from Netflix released alongside the "Stranger Things" season 5 teaser trailer claims that the show's upcoming final season will be set in the fall of 1987 — a year and a half after the end of season 4. That's the biggest in-universe time jump the series has had yet between seasons, which is curious given that Hawkins, Indiana, was already looking pretty much unlivable the last time we saw it, thanks to Vecna's encroaching rifts from the Upside Down and Dimension X.
In total, the show will cover about four years, putting the younger characters in the middle of high school, Nancy and Jonathan about a year and a half out from what would have been their graduation (before everything got messy), and making Steve about 21 for the final batch of episodes.
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Steve Will Be 20 Or 21 In Stranger Things Season 5
By the fall of 1987, Steve will have been out of high school for more than two years. The last time we saw him in his normal life, he was working at a local video store in Hawkins. Of course, that status quo gets upset pretty thoroughly by the town's Satanic Panic, the attacks by Vecna, and everything else that goes on in "Stranger Things" season 4.
The time jump leading into season 5 is one of the most curious things about the show's final stretch of episodes. "The government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding," reads the synopsis released with the season 5 teaser. Has Max (Sadie Sink) been in a coma for that whole time? Are residents allowed to leave, or are they functionally prisoners, cordoned off to prevent a wider public panic? The end of season 4 left many dead or wounded in Hawkins. Right now, there's a lot we still don't know.
Whatever Steve has been up to in the meantime, it's likely more than just renting videos -- assuming that store's even still intact in the aftermath of the Upside Down earthquakes.
Joe Keery Is Much Older Than Steve Harrington In Real Life
While Steve is only 17 at the beginning of "Stranger Things" and just about 21 in season 5, his actor, Joe Keery, is substantially older. Keery was born in 1992, making 24 when the first season came out in 2016. That's not such a wild stretch, but due to the repeated production delays and extended gaps between seasons that the show has dealt with, he's now 33 going into the release of season 5, a whopping 12 years older than his character will be.
Fortunately, Steve's age means that you likely won't notice the difference, as he's already an adult. The age gaps between characters and actors are far more distracting for the younger members of the cast. The original "party" of Dungeons & Dragons players, along with Max and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), should all be about 16 or 17 in season 5 — approaching the same age Steve was in season 1. However, the actors are all in their 20s at this point, with Noah Schnapp the youngest at 20, and Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin the oldest at 23.
While those age differences aren't as big as the one between Keery and Steve, they were more notable in season 4 because the characters are still supposed to be kids. It's one of those things you just kind of have to look past and get over, which shouldn't be a problem for most fans when "Stranger Things" season 5 arrives later this year. From the looks of it, there will be plenty of pomp, circumstance, and CGI madness to keep you distracted.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
