Stranger Things star talks fan theories, character deaths, and getting 'covered in goop'

After 10 years of Dungeons & Dragon campaigns, demogorgon battles, Netflix binges, and endless fan theories, Stranger Things has come to an end. For the young cast of unknowns that have since matured into 20-something rising stars, it’s a bittersweet farewell to a show that launched their careers, including Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), who reflected on the series finale in a Friday morning.

“I think that’s like a really special place to get to,” Matarazzo tells Polygon.

Over the course of our 15-minute phone call, Matarazzo uses that word, “special,” a dozen times to describe the experience of filming the final episode of Stranger Things and then releasing it into the world. Clearly, this show will always mean a lot to him, though he’s also more than happy to dive into some of the more difficult aspects of playing the role, along with the intense fandom that sometimes felt at odds with the series itself.

When I ask if fan speculation made him worry any of the core cast would die in the final episode, Matarazzo replies: “In retrospect, a lot of the conversations about character deaths were way more fan-driven than driven by the creatives or the cast.”

Below, we talk about the Stranger Things finale’s biggest and most emotional moments, Matarazzo’s trick for delivering some of the show’s most complex dialogue, and his experience seeing the last episode in theaters on New Year’s Eve.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for the final episode of Stranger Things.]

Image: Victoria Stevens

Polygon: Let’s jump straight to the big Mind Flayer battle. You’re right in the middle of it, stabbing the monster and getting covered in goop. What was your experience filming that scene?

Gaten Matarazzo: Anytime you get to do stuff like that, it’s going to be great the first time, and then you realize you’re going to be sludgy and covered in goo and sand for a week straight. We were very wet and heavy. And I was in my ghillie suit, so nothing would drip off. It held the weight of the spludge for a good while.

We filmed that scene in this outer quarry in Atlanta, this weird rocky area. We went back out there for over a week to get that sequence out of the way. There’s so many outtakes of us stabbing that goo, and there’s a few of it landing right on my face. And when you’re spitting it up and borderline puking it up on the floor, and it’s so gross.

I remember how much we filmed, and then watching and being like, “They got like two seconds of that shit!” We got so goopy for them to have at most 30 seconds of us getting all goopy. That’s just how it goes. There’s so much to cover in a sequence like that.

It just shows you how long it takes to film something of that scale. It’s a pretty quick sequence, but there’s so much that goes into it.

In the high school graduation scene, Dustin delivers the valedictorian speech and at the end, you give Principal Higgins the finger at the end. A lot of fans have picked up on that as a callback to something Joseph Quinn says as Eddie in season 4. Was that an intentional reference?

Yeah, we knew that that was going to be the reference going in. The script even has the direction “Flip the bird.”

I think it’s a really cool way to show that Dustin’s in a good place with his grief. There’s going to be ups and downs, but there are healthy ways to grieve and there are unhealthy ways to do it. Throughout the season, you see him kind of grumble and deal with loss in a pretty unsustainable way. So being able to see him be in a place where he can smile through his grief and laugh and remember his friend fondly is really special.

The final scene of the show is you guys playing D&D, and at the end, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) kind of imagines where each of the main characters might go next, but it’s unclear if that’s just his hope for the future of an actual flashforward. How do you interpret that moment?

I think it’s a very clear-cut description of what’s followed in the coming years for the characters. I don’t know where Lucas and Max ended up going to school, but it seems like maybe they took a gap year and just decided to spend some time together to get Max used to being back into the world.

Whether Eleven is alive or not, that’s a more subjective take. Whatever works for you. Whatever makes you feel better. If you want to look at what she sacrificed and live with that, you’re fully entitled to. And if you want to hope that she’s still there, you’re fully entitled to.

Throughout the show, Dustin is often the exposition guy. You get to explain the wild sci-fi concepts, and there’s some pretty out-there stuff this season, like the Exotic Matter and the Upside Down being a wormhole. Was there anything in this season, or in general, where you struggled to wrap your head around a concept like that so you could explain it as Dustin?

Oh hell yeah. Everything I said. Sometimes when I’d read the script I’d be like, “Oh, shit.” You know what does help? Anytime some crazy weird blurb about theoretical physics comes up, I’ll go online and watch Neil deGrasse Tyson on YouTube and try to figure it out until I can kind of grasp it.

Also, visual aids are very common in the show. That little wormhole I drew on the window in the Squawk helped me understand what was going on as I was explaining it, but yes, I’m playing a character who knows a hell of a lot more about that than I do.

Ahead of the finale, a lot of people thought Steve Harrington was going to die. Dustin and Steve have had a great dynamic throughout Stranger Things. Were you worried about his character?

I didn’t know how they were going to approach character deaths at all. It was something I think Matt and Ross [Duffer] debated for a while and came to the conclusion that the show is about this family surviving through the impossible. The Hawkins group is always supposed to make it out of the story because the show is always about heart and its optimism and the people that make up this community and this ragtag team.

And a lot of people are like, “It’s crazy that they would have made it out,” but I think that’s the point of the show. It’s about this group getting through adversity together and doing so successfully. And I think that as you see the last episode and let everything wrap up, you can appreciate that for being the ultimate plan.

In retrospect, a lot of the conversations about character deaths were way more fan-driven than driven by the creatives or the cast.

There were a lot of fan theories and fan speculation around the final season. Did you read any of them?

I do like to. I am very impressed by a lot of ideas that people come up with. Sometimes I’ll read something and be like, “This is actually legit, really cool if they end up going with it.” But most of the time, I hope this doesn’t come across as rude, I find a lot of them very goofy, and that is also very delightful. It would be like, “They’re going to travel back in time and bring back Eddie the Vampire.” I’m like, “What are we doing?” I guess it’s already such an outlandish show where we’re dealing with interdimensional Lovecraftian monsters. It wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the world to introduce more monsters and stuff. But even after the episode finished, people kept coming up to me and saying, “Dude, I really thought Eddie was coming back.” And that was one that was very funny to me.

There was a lot of conviction amongst fans that Will and Mike were going to end up being together, but I think ultimately, what was really special about it for those characters is that they get to hold onto something that’s important to them and stay friends through that little rocky patch. For the story being about Will accepting himself and understanding himself more than anything, it’s so wonderful that Mike can handle that with such maturity and still be very, very close with him — especially for the time period. That also sets up the ending with Billie [Eleven] and Finn [Mike], and it’s a great reminder of how essential that relationship was for Eleven to grow into a human being. As a fan, you want that for her.

Were you able to go to one of the movie screenings last night for the finale?

Yeah, it was really special. My mom lives in the Jacksonville area, and my siblings and I went down to spend the holiday with her. We knew we were going to be there for the release, so we checked which theaters were showing it. I showed up in a bit of a disguise so that I could get through the concessions area without it becoming a situation. I’m usually fine. I don’t walk out in disguises on a day-to-day, but going to the premiere of the show itself would have been a bit more hectic.

Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.