‘Stranger Things’ Star Noah Schnapp Was Asked to Pitch Up Voice, Directors Were ‘Not Loving’ When Cast Hit Puberty

When “Stranger Things” first aired on Netflix in 2016, its main cast ranged from around 12 to 14 years old, matching the age of their seventh-grade characters. But as it progressed, the series’ timeline moved slower than real life, and soon enough, the young actors were hitting puberty before their characters, creating a challenge for the show’s directors and producers.

According to Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers on the hit sci-fi show, a producer approached him during an earlier season and asked if he could raise the pitch of his voice and change his posture to better emulate Will’s age. While Will is either 14 or 15 in Season 4 of “Stranger Things,” Schnapp is nearing 18.

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“It was the peak time of change, and puberty and growing up and just everything was changing with all of us, and the directors were just not loving it,” Schnapp said in an interview with Flaunt. “And I remember one of the producers coming up to me and telling me, ‘Noah, is there any way you could just speak in a higher tone and just slouch a little bit? Like, we need you to keep that Season 1 innocence that you had.’ That was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you. My voice is dropping. I don’t sound young anymore.’”

Broken up into two parts, Season 4 of “Stranger Things” concluded on July 1, while writing for the fifth and final season has begun. Season 4 of Matt and Ross Duffer’s retro series ended on a major cliffhanger, with the season’s main villain Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) temporarily defeated, but succeeding in his scheme to merge the dark otherworld of the Upside Down with the sleepy Indiana town of Hawkins. Season 5 will presumably follow the large ensemble cast fighting to protect the town and attempting to finally destroy the Upside Down.