KATSEYE singer Lara Raj has responded to viral backlash after she stated that Noah Schnapp's Stranger Things character Will Byers "looks hot" in the show's fifth season. In a TikTok video posted following the premiere of the first four episodes of Stranger Things season five, the 20-year-old "Gnarly" singer described the show as a "cinematic masterpiece". "And Will looks so hot," she added. "He looks so hot in that last scene - I'm like, period! You're giving."
Earlier on in the season, Will had a little heart-to-heart with Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) about sexuality, after he spotted her kissing her girlfriend Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) at the hospital. Then, during a chat between Will and Mike, Mike offers his friend some words of encouragement about tapping into his "innate" powers. "I'm just saying, that you're a wizard like [Vecna]... in real life, you're more like a sorcerer, because your powers don't come from a book of spells. They're innate," he tells Will.
The 1980s-set Netflix series Stranger Things, returning this week for Season 5, has always had a real knack for choosing songs of the era and exploding their popularity. The most notable example of this was Season 4's epic use of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill," but every season has featured some unexpected yet welcome needle drops, including The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go," The Police's "Every Breath You Take," and Metallica's "Master of Puppets."
It'd be nice to dive into the fifth and final season of Stranger Things like it was just another TV show, free of expectations. But that's not what Netflix wants, hence the company spreading out the release across all three major American holidays at the end of the year, the rest of the episodes premiering on Christmas and New Year's Eve. This is a goddamn TV event, if only by sheer force of will on the part of the massive streaming service. Thanksgiving, it's implied, ranks second.
The conceit is simple: When you die, you get to pick an eternity to live in. Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) has a wrench thrown into her afterlife plan when she finds herself having to pick between her husband of half a century, Larry (Miles Teller), who died recently, and her first husband, Luke (Callum Turner), who died 60-something years prior. It's a sweet little well-made comedy with supporting performances from Da'Vine Joy Randolph and John Early.
In other words, the now 21-year-old actor had to look like his 10 or 11-year-old self. According to Deadline, young actor Luke Kotokek had to stand in for Schnapp during filming. Then, Schnapp's digitally de-aged face was swapped with Kotokek's in post by VFX company Lola - with some environmental assistance, since the Upside Down is blanketed in endless darkness in the show's fictional universe.
Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have proudly said their hit Netflix show is not a bloodbath like "Game of Thrones." "This is Hawkins. It's not Westeros," Matt said in 2022 after the show's star, Millie Bobby Brown, called the Duffer brothers "sensitive Sallies" for not killing off more characters. While some of the show's main characters have been on the brink of death at times - Will (Noah Schnapp), Hopper ( David Harbour), Steve (Joe Keery), Max (Sadie Sink) -