As Stranger Things returns for its highly anticipated fifth and final season, stars Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp reflected on how their characters continue to evolve amid the escalating threats facing Hawkins.

For both Eleven and Will, this chapter is less about stepping into leadership and more about discovering inner power through protecting the people they love.

During the recent cast interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act, Brown explained that Eleven hasn’t necessarily viewed herself as a leader. Instead, her focus has always been on keeping her friends safe.

Is Eleven a leader in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5?

When talking about her role in Season 5, she said, “Well, I would say Eleven doesn’t want to be a leader. She doesn’t even know to be that. It’s more about she wants to be a protector, and I think her main theme in this season is to protect her friends, which has been something that she has carried through all of the seasons from Season 1. I think that is her big thing: I protect my friends, I protect my family, because that’s all she has. So that is really what you get to see full throttle this season. It’s been really nice to be able to have that kind of full-circle moment of her being able to really stand in her power and really not take no for an answer. And yeah, I’m really excited for people to see Eleven step more into that and become more of a woman.”

Noah Schnapp on Will being protective of his mother, Mike and his best friends

Schnapp expressed a similar sentiment about Will, noting that his character’s bravery comes from his relationships rather than from within himself.

“I think it’s actually interesting what Millie said about not being a leader, but being a protector of her friends,” he said. “I feel I find the same in my character. It’s like he doesn’t find the strength from himself, but from others and from protecting his mother and Mike and his best friends and the people around him, and that’s when he really finds the strength to fight. And it’s not in protecting himself. But yeah, I mean, through his relationship with Robin in the new season, he does learn to come to terms with who he is, and it’s a beautiful kind of tie with his own personal struggles and the external struggles against him.”

They also discussed the rampant fan theories that run wild each season, and if they ever have theories of their own.

Brown recalled, “I mean, we get to read the scripts prior to filming, so we have our own sets of questions that I kind of… have to sit there with the Duffers, and I’m like, ‘But wait, but when they said this and then this, and then, but then how does that…?’ But by episode eight, I had no more questions. I knew exactly what was going on, and I think that that is going to be really rewarding for our audience.”

Stranger Things Season 5 premieres on Nov. 26.

Noah Schnapp

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