Stranger Things star Joe Keery has “very convoluted” feelings about his time in Hawkins coming to an end.
During a recent interview with Women’s Wear Daily, conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike, the actor and musician said, “It does feel like it’s time” but “it won’t be easy for it to end.”
In 2016, Keery debuted his character Steve Harrington in season one of the hit Netflix series, which also stars Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin. Through the first four seasons, his character went from being the bad high school boy to a surprising ally to the main squad as they battle the terrifying world of the Upside Down.
“I owe my whole career to being on that show and all the opportunities that I had since are because of that show,” he added. “So it’s very convoluted. There’s a sense of relief, there’s a sense of sadness.”
As for the fifth and final season of the Duffer brothers-created show, production is currently delayed amid the ongoing actors and writers strikes. But once filming resumes, Keery wants to cherish all the final moments.
“I guess my goal is to just really soak it up as much as I can while we’re doing it, and not take any of it for granted because it’s been an amazing ride with such great people,” he said. “And then once it’s done, move forward and try to just hold on to the joy that we had when we were making it. … Everything has a beginning and the middle and an end. It’ll be nice to have the end of this too.”
Keery isn’t the only Stranger Things star to open up about being ready to move past the show and on to new projects.
Earlier this year, Brown told Seventeen magazine that she’s “very ready to say goodbye” to her character Eleven and is excited for new chapters “to create stories myself that are important to me and focus on the bigger picture.”
David Harbour, who plays Jim Hopper, has previously said, “It is time for us to leave that nest and try other things and different projects. And to let the Duffer brothers try different things as well.”
In March, Matarazzo admitted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that while there is a “deep fear” of the show ending, he is also excited “to see how these characters are going to finally develop one last time, and how they’re going to finish their journeys.”
