STRANGER THINGS Star Gaten Matarazzo talks about the evolution of his character and the fifth and final season

The Duffer brothers were careful to write a story Stranger things was compelling and original, creating not just a series, but a phenomenon that took the world by storm.

They hired a young cast who we got to watch grow before us, with the show giving each of them the opportunity to tell their own story and be part of the larger one on screen, and each of them given a spotlight to show off their badass skills.

Gaten Matarazzo he’s part of that young cast and brought the multifaceted character Dustin Henderson to life.

What started out as a role that some might have dismissed as comic relief, Dustin turned out to be one of the smartest members of the group, who went on to have an affair, save the world and his friends, and mourn the loss of someone he loved. The guy has a wide range of possibilities and spoke about playing Dustin in a new interview with ABC News.

In the discussion, Matarazzo talked about how co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer prepared their cast for the inevitable end of their Upside Down adventures, saying:

“We knew we were getting close to the end. We were told pretty early in the process. I mean, from the first season, it wasn’t clear if we were going to have a second season.” [season] and then once we had some success, which we were very grateful for, then I think Matt and Ross, our creators, knew that they wanted to have an end in sight and understand when they were going to wrap it up.

“Because a lot of shows that are moderately successful tend to build up that success for quite some time—and then they get caught up in a situation that they don’t know how to end—I think they knew they wanted to have somewhere to go. And so they kept that in mind and we knew it was probably going to be about four or five seasons.”

He went on to talk about Dustin’s evolution throughout the show:

“I think [being comic relief] that’s always kind of been the intention of the character from the beginning, and I think that [bigger] The challenge was trying to bring a little more nuance and not just stick to quippy jokes, which I’m really grateful for.

“They wanted all of their characters to be really well thought out and we had the time to do that. We had the time; we had several seasons, a lot of time invested in these characters to bring a lot of depth over the course of these five seasons.

“So I think that, yeah, that depth comes along the way and it’s really fun to do and I’ve always enjoyed it. It kind of brings a little less of that pressure on me, [and] I can have a little more fun.”

While Matarazzo obviously can’t provide much information about the upcoming fifth and final season, he did talk a bit about its scope, saying:

“It’s a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to make and…” [the Duffer brothers] we knew it was going to be a huge event and there were high expectations to make sure it lived up to what [season] four brought in.

“Four was huge, bigger than we initially thought [season five]It’s big and it’s long, which I’m excited about. And because it took so long to make, I think it’s refreshing for a lot of people that there’s so much spectacle there.

Stranger things season five, episodes 1-4, will be released on Thanksgiving, November 26; episodes 5-7 will be released on Christmas, December 25; and the series finale will arrive on New Year’s Eve, December 31st.