“Stranger Things” cast says watching series finale together was 'emotional' experience
- - “Stranger Things” cast says watching series finale together was 'emotional' experience
Raechal ShewfeltJanuary 2, 2026 at 4:20 AM
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Cara Buono/Instagram
The 'Stranger Things' cast watches the series finale
They're no longer running up that hill.
Netflix officially dropped the last episode of Stranger Things on Wednesday, and the ensemble cast, many members of which have grown up together, gathered to watch the finale together.
Actress Cara Buono, who portrays Mike's mother Karen Wheeler on the sci-fi show, shared a photo of a dozen or so cast members, including Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, Joe Keery, and Gaten Matarazzo.
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“Watching the finale together was emotional, cathartic, and a little surreal, like the last day of summer camp, but with more tears and better lighting,” Buono captioned her photos. "I looked around the room at these ridiculous, brilliant humans, artists, my friends, my family and felt this wild rush of gratitude. For every single moment of it. Ten years of monsters, childhood, and magic."
She made sure to show her gratitude to the fans.
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"Thank you for loving this story the way we loved telling it," Buono wrote "We may be done with Hawkins, but we're forever bonded."
Buono wasn't the only one who was emotional about the nostalgic, Emmy-winning series coming to an end.
In his own post, series co-creator Ross Duffer described the screening as "an emotional and cathartic experience for all of us."
"Hanging out afterwards," Duffer continued, "I looked around at all these incredible artists — laughing, crying, supporting one another — and felt so lucky that we remain so close, bonded by these ten years. While we're finished telling this story, we are family now, forever."
When Entertainment Weekly spoke to stars of the Netflix series about its end ahead of that final episode, they described being very affected. After all, the show began back in 2016, when many members of the young cast were still kids.
Charley Gallay/Getty
The 'Stranger Things' attends the season premiere Oct. 6 in L.A.
"Knowing that I won't ever see them again in the same space was really tough," Schnapp told EW. "I think the day after [filming ended] was just devastating for me."
Actress Millie Bobby Brown, who has married and become a mom since her first days portraying the show's Eleven, said then that she wasn't necessarily thinking of the end until she had to.
"It really has to be in my face for me to be like, 'Oh my God! It's happening,'" Brown told EW. "A year in advance, I wasn't thinking about it because I was like, 'We still have a year to go.' But then on the last day [of filming] it really hit me. Actually, the night before it really hit me."
Brown did not attend the screening at the Paris Theater in New York City because she was still recovering from the dislocated shoulder that she revealed this month, per PEOPLE.
The Stranger Things finale is available to stream on Netflix.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
