History Trivia / StrangerThings

** The final episode of Season 3 has Creator/GatenMatarazzo show off his singing voice. Ironically, while he does sing professionally in musical theatre, he's not as well-known for it like fellow cast members Joe Keery (who performs as both Djo and plays guitar in Post Animal) or Finn Wolfhard (who is the lead singer and guitarist for Calpurnia).

* TheCameo: Creator/Maya Hawke's brother Levon plays a video store customer in a Season 4 episode.

* TheCameo: Maya Hawke's brother Levon plays a video store customer in a Season 4 episode.

** According to an interview of LA Times, Noah Schnapp originally auditioned for Mike Wheeler.
** Joe Keery originally auditioned to be Jonathan Byers before being cast as Steve Harrington.

** The final episode of Season 3 has Gaten Matarazzo show off his singing voice. Ironically, while he does sing professionally in musical theatre, he's not as well-known for it like fellow cast members Joe Keery (who performs as both Djo and plays guitar in Post Animal) or Finn Wolfhard (who is the lead singer and guitarist for Calpurnia).

* BillingDisplacement: Cara Buono is credited as a main cast member despite Karen Wheeler being at most a secondary character. Made more noticeable by her getting an individual credit when all the far more prominent younger actors are billed in pairs, though they are at least all placed ahead of her. By Season 4, Buono was taken out of the opening credits and instead put in "Also Starring" for the episodes in which she's featured. And even then this billing still falls into the trope, as she's grouped up with three actors who are season regulars in contrast to her minor part.

** All the pictures of Barb in the Season 2 premiere are actually from Shannon Purser's childhood.

* ActorInspiredElement: In Season 4, Lucas sports a number eight jersey on the basketball team, a nod to Kobe Bryant's first jersey number in the NBA. Caleb [=McLaughlin=] chose the number himself as a tribute to the late basketball star.

* AbilityOverAppearance: A minor example. Sadie Sink was initially turned down for Max, as they felt she was too old for the character (she was fourteen and Max is supposed to be twelve). She however lobbied for a chance to test her chemistry alongside Finn Wolfhard, Caleb [=McLaughlin=] and Gaten Matarazzo, and won the part.
* ActingForTwo: By technicality; in Season 3, Dacre Montgomery plays both Billy and [[spoiler:the Mind Flayer speaking through Billy's body]]. In Season 4 he also plays [[spoiler:Vecna, or at least an illusion Vecna creates to torment Max.]]

* ActorSharedBackground: All the pictures of Barb in the Season 2 premiere are actually from Shannon Purser's childhood.

** Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) suffers from cleidocranial dysplasia. The condition was written into his character.

** Season 4 adds British actors Joseph Quinn and Creator/JamieCampbellBower as Eddie Munson and Vecna (AKA [[spoiler:Henry Creel/001]]) respectively. Minor character Vickie (the band member Robin has a crush on) is played by Amybeth [=McNulty=], who's Irish-Canadian.
* FakeRussian: Enzo, a Russian prison guard, is played by Tom Wlaschiha, who's German. Likewise, Yuri, the smuggler is played by a Serbian actor, who [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent doesn't even try to do a proper accent]] and instead uses his own.

** Music/{{Metallica}} [[https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cfom8d8twqG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link had nothing but praise]] for the way their song "Master of Puppets" was used in the season 4 finale. Not only did they commend the incorporation of music in the show in general and called it "an incredible honor" to be selected alongside other great artists, in a pivotal scene no less, they also stated that their high expectations got exceeded by the final result, calling it "extremely well done". Additionally they singled out their die-hard fans who were able to guess the song based on trailer snippets of the player's hands before the episode even came out. The band then posted a video of them playing the song while wearing Hellfire Club t-shirts and later had Eddie's actor, Joseph Quinn, on stage with them for the song at Lollapalooza.

** Music/{{Metallica}} [[https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cfom8d8twqG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link had nothing but praise]] for the way their song "Master of Puppets" was used in the season 4 finale. Not only did they commend the incorporation of music in the show in general and called it "an incredible honor" to be selected alongside other great artists, in a pivotal scene no less, they also stated that their high expectations got exceeded by the final result, calling it "extremely well done". Additionally they singled out their die-hard fans who were able to guess the song based on trailer snippets of the player's hands before the episode even came out. The band then posted a video of them playing the song while wearing Hellfire Club t-shirts.

** Noah Schnapp absolutely despises Will's bowl cut and has repeatedly asked the creators to change it to a different '80s hairstyle.

* FriendshipOnTheSet: Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp have been best friends since the first season. Creator/MatthewModine also formed a strong bond with Millie during the first and fourth seasons.

* TheOtherDarrin: Child actress Martie Marie Blair portrayed the younger Eleven (with the help of some CGI to make her face more closely resemble Creator/MillieBobbyBrown) during the Hawkins Laboratory flashback scenes in Season 4, due to Brown having aged far too much to play her as she was in the first season.

** Dr Brenner's tearful SoProudOfYouMoment for Eleven and pleading for her to understand that he cares for her has quite a bit of RealitySubtext in it. Creator/MatthewModine and Creator/MillieBobbyBrown had become close friends during the show's production, and Modine was wrestling with his feelings regarding his time on the show ending and never seeing Millie again during the shooting of that scene.

* TheOtherDarrin: Child actress Martie Marie Blair portrayed the younger Eleven during the Hawkins Laboratory flashback scenes in Season 4, due to Creator/MillieBobbyBrown having aged far too much to play her as she was in the first season.

* PromotedToOpeningTitles: Joe Keery and Noah Schnapp starting in Season 2, going from recurring to main characters. The same happened to Priam Ferguson in Season 3, and then Brett Gelman in Season 4.

** Martie Marie Blair, the young actress who portrays a young Eleven in Season 4, looks almost ''exactly'' like Creator/MillieBobbyBrown did when she first appeared as Eleven in Season 1. One wouldn't be at fault for thinking they were sisters.

* FriendshipOnTheSet: Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp have been best friends since the first season.

* LyingCreator: The Duffer brothers said that [[spoiler: Hopper was definitively dead after Season 3]]. [[spoiler: David Harbour]] kept up the ruse in interviews on social media, insisting they were not returning to the show. Apparently, enough people figured it out quickly enough that the Duffers [[spoiler: just put him in the first trailer for Season 4.]]

* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) could easily be Winona Ryder's (Joyce Byers) real-life son with their shared doe eyes, straight brown hair, pale skin and nose shapes. After his voice cracked from puberty, the similarity in his voice to that of Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) became a bit more apparent.

* RevivalByCommercialization: Music/KateBush's epic "[[Music/HoundsOfLove Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)]]" became a chart-topper the week Season 4 dropped - ''thirty-seven years after its release'' - making Bush (at 63 at the time) the oldest female artist to get a number one in the UK Official Singles Chart. In fact, it ended up ''exceeding'' its 1985 chart performance by a massive margin, with number ones in eight countries.
** "Master of Puppets" by Music/{{Metallica}} also recharted after being featured in a memorable scene of the Season 4 finale.

** Music/{{Metallica}} [[https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cfom8d8twqG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link had nothing but praise]] for the way their song "Master of Puppets" was used in the season 4 finale. Not only did they commend the incorporation of music in the show in general and called it "an incredible honor" to be selected alongside other great artists, in a pivotal scene no less, they also stated that their high expectations got exceeded by the final result, calling it "extremely well done". Additionally they singled out their die-hard fans who were able to guess the song based on trailer snippets of the player's hands before the episode even came out.

** [[BigManOnCampus Steve Harrington]] was originally envisioned as a stereotypical eighties JerkJock and RomanticFalseLead for Nancy who would die at the end of the season. However, the creators found Creator/JoeKeery to be so likable and charming, the character was rewritten as a more complicated individual, with his initial jerkish actions in the show are the result of ToxicFriendInfluence and insecurity. This led to Steve gaining a major HeelRealization towards the end of the season, developing into a more decent individual (as well as Nancy not actually breaking up with him until the next season when it's solely down to personal differences). He likewise went through a lot of CharacterDevelopment during seasons two and three, causing him to develop into a big brother figure towards the kids and become both one of the show's heroes and an EnsembleDarkHorse.

** Finn Wolfhard improvised the lines "Blank makes you crazy" to Eleven in Season 3 and the line "Your my superhero" in the Season 4 episode "Piggyback".

* ColbertBump: [[Music/HoundsOfLove "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)"]] has been one of Music/KateBush's most popular songs since it was first released in 1985, but it got an additional streaming boost following its usage in a pivotal season 4 scene. Several outlets reported that it ran all the way up to #1 on [=iTunes=] within two days after the first volume of episodes came out and it ended up with a UK Number 1 for the first time after EMI got a temporary exemption from the rules that reduce the impact of streaming on old songs.

** Steve was originally a much bigger and more stereotypical JerkJock than he was in the series, to the point where he forced himself on Nancy in the first draft of the pilot script. Amusingly enough, his character became more heroic after Joe Keery turned out to be [[NiceGuy too likable]] for such a role. In Season 2, Billy Hargrove was created to fill that role that Steve could have been.

* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: Grace Van Dien (Chrissy) received a lot of online hate due to her love of the Chrissy/Eddie ship, to the point where she commented that she was afraid for her safety.