Stranger Things Star Reveals "Deep Fear" About the Series Ending

03/21/2023 10:49 pm EDT

Stranger Things, the biggest show in Netflix history, is coming to an end with the upcoming fifth installment. The fifth season of Stranger Things will likely be in production for quite a while, and won't debut on Netflix until next year at the earliest, but it will mark the end of the story for Hawkins, Indiana and the kids we've all come to love. It's bittersweet to see the beloved series come to a close. The ending of Stranger Things also brings some new concerns for its stars, who have been locked in to work for the better part of a decade.

For the young stars of Stranger Things, most of their formative years have been spent working on Netflix's sci-fi series. During an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, actor Gaten Matarazzo explained that walking away from Stranger Things will mean being without a steady and secure job for the first time in years.

"It's something that's so important to all of us and has just been essential to the growth that I've had over all of my teenage years into my 20s," Matarazzo said. "It's the defining aspect of the past 10 years of my life, practically the past decade."

"There's kind of an excitement there because you always want to wrap it up and see how these characters are going to finally develop one last time, and how they're going to finish their journeys," he continued. "But also there's like a deep fear. Not only has it been amazing, but it's been pretty great job security for a while. Back to freelance."

Stranger Things 5 will see the residents of Hawkins go head-to-head with the evil Vecna, who ripped open the barrier between the Upside Down and the real world at the end of Season 4. The town will need to defeat his evil once and for all in order to stop Vecna from taking over. 

Matarazzo told Fallon that he hopes the final installment will be a "good launchpad for growth" for Dustin, Eleven, and the rest of the kids from Hawkins.

"I'd love to see these characters thrive and move on from the trauma they've endured over the past few years," the actor said.

Are you looking forward to the final season of Stranger Things? Let us know in the comments!

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