Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin Reveals His Hope for Lucas & Max

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Caleb McLaughlin‘s ending for Lucas Sinclair is an 11/10. 

A month after the last season of Stranger Things aired, the actor shared his thoughts on what might happen with his character and Max Mayfield (played by Sadie Sink) following the show’s controversial ending.

At the Los Angeles premiere of GOAT on February 6th, Caleb told TopMob News’ Will Marfuggi he really hopes Lucas and Max remain a couple. He called their relationship “an iconic love story” and said he wishes them all the best.

Max thinks there’s more to life than just focusing on boys, but Caleb understands that Lucas appreciates being in Max’s life. Max feels the same way about the Netflix show they’re both involved with.

After ten years on the show, Caleb said he felt the finale was a long time in the making, and that he cares for everyone involved.

And he’s not alone in thinking Max and Lucas had a happy ending.

Actually, one of the show’s creators, Matt Duffer, thinks the couple will be okay. He points out that Lucas waited almost two years for his girlfriend to recover after Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) put her in a trance at the end of season four.

He confirmed it on the Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz podcast in January, saying, “Their love is just incredibly genuine and powerful.”

Viewers got a brief look at what happened with each couple when Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) shared everyone’s storylines during the last game of Dungeons & Dragons.

He concluded by saying that happiness exists in unexpected places, then told the story of Max and Lucas. The knight and the tech expert left fighting behind and found peace in a quiet village, where their love deepened with each new day.

While recounting the story, Mike reveals that Lucas and Max finally went to the movies together, sharing a romantic kiss during their outing. According to co-creator Ross Duffer, this date was a particularly satisfying moment, bringing their storyline full circle.

He explained to Netflix’s Tudum that the characters had been looking forward to their movie date for a while, and it was satisfying to finally see it happen after the season finale.

Now that the show has ended, discover hidden details and behind-the-scenes facts about Stranger Things and revisit the world of the Upside Down.

Before creating Stranger Things, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer worked on M. Night Shyamalan’s TV series Wayward Pines. Their initial idea for the show was actually called Montauk.

Matt explained to The Daily Beast in 2016 that it’s incredibly difficult to convince people to accept a different title once you’ve become attached to one. He said that when they first suggested Stranger Things, it was a struggle to get others on board.

The creators of the show originally planned to film on Long Island, but it turned out to be too difficult to do so.

Matt told The Hollywood Reporter they chose Montauk because of its beautiful coastal location, and because it inspired the town of Amity in their favorite movie, Jaws. However, they quickly realized filming on Long Island during the winter would be both unpleasant and costly.

Atlanta ultimately became the home base for production.

Before Netflix decided to air the show, nearly 20 other networks rejected it, as reported by Vulture. Executives at those networks thought viewers wouldn’t connect with a series led by four child actors.

4. To play Eleven, then 12-year-old Millie Bobby Brown had to say goodbye to her hair.

In 2018, at PaleyFest, the actress described shaving her head as the most liberating experience of her life. She explained that letting go of her hair felt like revealing her true self, as she no longer had anything to hide behind. Looking in the mirror afterward, she felt a powerful sense of purpose: to inspire others to see that beauty isn’t defined by having hair.

She found inspiration for her role in both Charlize Theron’s performance in Mad Max: Fury Road and vintage yearbook pictures of her fellow actress, Winona Ryder.

I always admired Winona Ryder’s edgy pixie cut – it was such a cool look back in the nineties! It recently got me thinking… maybe it’s time I brought that style back myself!

The British actress shared that she used a surprising resource to nail her American accent: Miley Cyrus’s show, Hannah Montana. She told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show that she found it incredibly helpful. “It’s so good,” she explained, “Like the film, everything. Everything about it is amazing. And I got the American accent from it.”

The Duffer brothers chose the four young actors who would play the main characters by having them audition with scenes from the movie Stand By Me.

The brothers had a specific vision for the character of Mike, but that changed after Finn Wolfhard’s audition.

Matt explained to The Daily Beast in 2016 that Mike originally resembled the character Mikey from The Goonies – a bit of a dreamer. However, Finn Wolfhard brought a nervous, energetic quality to the audition, so they tailored the character to fit his personality.

Dustin’s character was significantly shaped by actor Gaten Matarazzo. According to one of the show’s creators, Matt, they initially envisioned Dustin as a typical “nerd” but completely rewrote the role to better suit Gaten’s talents and personality after meeting him.

After the show became popular, sales of Eggo waffles jumped significantly, thanks to Eleven’s love for them. Kellogg’s reported a 14% increase in consumption in late 2017, following the release of season two. October of that year also saw the highest number of social media mentions for the product ever recorded in a single month.

In early 2018, David Harbour became an internet sensation after agreeing to a fan’s unusual request: to take her senior portraits with her. It started when the fan tweeted, asking how many retweets it would take to convince him to do so. Harbour responded, saying he’d do it for 25,000 retweets, with the condition that he got to wear the school sweatshirt and hold a trombone. And true to his promise, he followed through!

He jokingly predicted on Instagram that he’d be the one to take over someone else’s high school senior photos years down the line – and it seems he followed through!

Later that year, Harbour playfully offered to marry a fan if she could get 125,000 retweets and a piece of wedding cake. He quickly became officially ordained, and ended up performing the ceremony dressed as his character, Chief Hopper.

Fans often speculated that Eleven might be Hopper’s biological daughter, but he ultimately became a father figure to her. A touching detail revealed in the season two finale showed Eleven wearing a blue braided bracelet – made from a ribbon belonging to Hopper’s deceased daughter – at her school dance, subtly hinting at their connection.

Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven, revealed that her first-ever kiss was with Finn Wolfhard (Mike) during season one of the show. She described the experience as ‘strange,’ explaining that being watched by around 250 people while kissing someone was overwhelming.

She shared what her co-star quietly said to her right before they had to kiss for a second time on the show.

She recounted an awkward experience where he warned her he was about to kiss her, but did so in a strange way. ‘He basically said, ‘I’m coming in for a kiss,’ but he did this weird, almost robotic impression, like a ventriloquist,’ she shared on The Tonight Show in 2017. ‘It was so bizarre!’

Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton, who star as Nancy and Jonathan in the show, started dating in 2016 and have generally kept their romance out of the public eye.

Natalia shared with Refinery 29 that she values keeping her personal life – relationships with family and friends – private. However, she also noted that collaborating with someone you live with can be enjoyable, calling it ‘really fun’.

Surprisingly, Joe Keery’s character, Steve Harrington, wasn’t originally meant to survive the first season of the show.

According to Ross, they quickly grew fond of Joe Keery, who played Steve, while filming the first season. This affection led them to create a storyline where Steve teams up with Jonathan and Nancy to help resolve the central conflict. Originally, Steve was intended to be a stereotypical, unpleasant athlete, but Keery brought much more depth to the character.

18. Also slated to perish was Eleven. Yes, really. 

According to Ross Duffer, in the book Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down, the original plan was for Eleven to sacrifice herself to save everyone. However, when they realized the show might continue beyond a single season, they had to change that storyline. They understood that the show wouldn’t work without Eleven, and they quickly recognized how talented Millie Bobby Brown was. If Stranger Things continued, Eleven needed to survive.

The seventh episode of the second season, “The Lost Sister,” nearly didn’t make the final cut. The Duffer brothers, in an interview with Vulture, explained they worried the episode – which focuses on Eleven’s search for another test subject – would disrupt the show’s flow.

Matt explained that as they started writing the episode, they questioned whether it was even necessary. They even considered cutting it entirely, but the planned ending involving Eleven didn’t work without it. Ultimately, they realized the episode was essential.

20. Eleven’s sibling was written to be a boy, with the episode originally titled “The Lost Brother.” 

Once the audition was open to all young actors, Linnea Berthelsen won the role. The resulting episode showed Eleven meeting her “sister,” Kali. According to Matt, Linnea and Millie (who plays Eleven) had a strong connection, and Millie specifically requested to work with Linnea.

Nicola Coughlan, the actress known for her role in Bridgerton, originally tried out for the part of Robin. However, she later landed the role of Penelope Featherington. Maya Hawke ended up getting the role of Robin, and Nicola has said Hawke was much more suited to it than she would have been.

She explained that actors can learn a lot by looking at roles they didn’t land. It helps them realize rejection isn’t about them personally – everyone is simply better suited for certain parts and not others.

Before becoming known for her role as Sarah on the Netflix series Outer Banks, Madelyn Cline played the character Tina, a popular and somewhat unkind student, in the second season of the show.

To land the role of Billy, the rebellious older stepbrother of Max (played by Sadie Sink), Australian actor Dacre Montgomery created a memorable audition tape. He told GQ he aimed to impress the Duffer brothers with something bold and a little edgy.

Dacre took a big risk to land a role: he filmed himself dancing in a G-string to 80s hits like “Come on Eileen” and “Hungry Like the Wolf.” He worried it might end his career, but he hoped someone would recognize his talent and give him a chance. Luckily, the gamble worked!

As the show entered its third season, Deadline reported significant pay raises for the cast. The younger actors saw their per-episode salaries jump from around $30,000 to over $200,000, and potentially as high as $250,000. Winona Ryder and David Harbour were earning approximately $300,000 to $350,000 per episode, while Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton were making between $100,000 and $150,000.

Priah Ferguson was originally only scheduled to appear in a single episode of season two as Erica, Lucas’s spirited younger sister. However, the Duffer brothers were so impressed with her performance that they continued to include her, eventually making her a main cast member in the following season.

Because the young actors were still growing during filming, the costume designers had a hard time making sure their clothes fit consistently from scene to scene.

It was quite a challenge keeping up with the kids’ growing feet,” costume designer Kim Wilcox explained to TopMob News. “One child, in particular, outgrew his shoes every three weeks, gaining half a size at a time!” To solve this, Wilcox sourced shoes from brands that offered the same style in a wide range of sizes. “We’d buy five pairs of each size, so we’d always have a replacement when a child had a growth spurt.”

The Duffer brothers were inspired by classic films like The Goonies, E.T., and Stand By Me, but they made sure their references weren’t too obvious.

When we initially presented the project to Netflix, we created a lengthy, two-and-a-half-minute trailer. It combined clips and ideas from around 20 to 30 films to give a sense of the Stranger Things story, but these were mostly concepts we had in mind, explained Matt in an interview with The Daily Beast. These films were hugely influential on us growing up and deeply shaped our creative vision. However, once we started writing individual episodes, we rarely talked about other movies. We focused on telling the story and letting the characters drive the plot. Otherwise, it would have become confusing and disjointed.

The team aimed for a classic look by minimizing special effects, but they soon realized it was much harder than they thought.

Originally, we wanted to rely entirely on practical effects, but we quickly learned how challenging that is—we really gained a new appreciation for the teams who created films like The Thing and Alien. Practical effects take a lot of time and planning. We were developing the script very quickly, but we didn’t have the months needed to properly prepare everything. When we got to set, a lot of the ideas that seemed good in theory just weren’t feasible given the time constraints.

Oh my god, it’s exactly how the Duffer Brothers planned it from the beginning! I read in Variety that they’ve had this five-season story in their heads since 2015, and it’s all coming together now as we get closer to the end. It’s insane! And get this – each episode of season four cost THIRTY MILLION dollars! Thirty million! Netflix’s Matthew Thunell said it, so it must be true. They really didn’t hold back, and it shows. It’s all part of the plan, guys, all of it!

Although the creators of Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers, know how the show will eventually end, they aren’t finished exploring the story and the world of the Upside Down.

In an interview with Variety, the creators revealed they have a spin-off idea they’re really enthusiastic about, but it’s still in the very early stages – they haven’t even shared the concept with anyone yet. Although they’ve been trying to keep it under wraps, Matt and Ross confessed that Finn had already correctly guessed what the series would be about, describing it as ‘very, very different.’ They emphasized that Finn is the only one who knows the premise so far.

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2026-02-09 23:21