As Stranger Things gears up for its long-awaited final season, Finn Wolfhard, who’s played Mike Wheeler since the show’s explosive debut in 2016, is reflecting on what it all means. And according to the 22-year-old star, saying goodbye is anything but simple.
“I was so happy with his ending,” Finn said in a new interview with People. “But I was also very confused and sad. It was a whole mix of emotions… but also very happy.”
It’s the kind of emotional whiplash you’d expect after closing a chapter that spanned nearly a decade. For Finn Wolfhard, Stranger Things wasn’t just a gig, it was the series that took him from kid actor to global phenomenon. And now, it’s all coming to a close.
Set in a small Indiana town in the 1980s, Stranger Things turned Dungeons & Dragons-loving kids into heroes battling supernatural evil and shady government plots. Alongside co-stars Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, and Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard helped define the heart and humor of the show.
Season 5, which Netflix has kept under tight wraps, is expected to continue the Hawkins vs. Vecna showdown, now with the terrifying Upside Down spilling into the real world. But even as fans prepare for the battle ahead, the cast is already feeling the weight of goodbye.
Finn described his final shoot as surreal. “I just couldn’t believe it at all,” he said. “It didn’t really start to go into focus until the next day. It was like an emotional hangover.”
In a heartwarming touch, the entire cast reportedly stayed on set for the last day, even if they weren’t filming. “We were all there together,” Finn recalled. “It was really great to be around each other.”
Looking back, Finn’s grateful, but honest, about how sudden fame affected him. Stranger Things was an instant cultural juggernaut, and for its young cast, that level of attention was a lot to process.
“I don’t think I’d ever go back and do something over,” he said, “but maybe I would go back to when the show first came out and blew up, and I would directly put myself into therapy. It was so crazy and overnight, that there was not really any time to think about that.”
Now older and more reflective, Finn says he’s proud of where his character lands in the final season, even if it left him emotionally drained. And while Mike Wheeler’s story may be coming to an end, Wolfhard’s journey in film and music is just getting started.
As fans count down the days to the Stranger Things finale, one thing’s clear: Hawkins may be fictional, but the impact of the kids who saved it, on and off screen, is very, very real.
