Millie Bobby Brown Is Ready to Be Done With 'Stranger Things'
It sure sounds like Millie Bobby Brown is ready to leave Eleven and the Stranger Things universe behind.
The Netflix sci-fi series made Brown a breakout star, but by the time the fifth and final series airs, likely in 2024 or 2025 (filming was set to begin in May 2023, but has been delayed indefinitely, first due to the Writers Guild of America strike and then the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike) the 19-year-old will have spent nearly half her life working on it. And as Brown recently explained to Glamour, in an interview that was conducted before the before the SAG-AFTRA strike, she's quite understandably ready to move onto other projects.
Brown likens Stranger Things ending to graduating from high school. "When you’re ready, you’re like, 'All right, let’s do this. Let’s tackle this last senior year. Let’s get out of here,'" she told the publication.
"Stranger Things takes up a lot of time to film and it’s preventing me from creating stories that I’m passionate about," Brown continued. "So I’m ready to say, 'Thank you, and goodbye.'" And while she's grateful that the series has given her "the tools and the resources to be a better actor," she says she won't mourn leaving it behind. "When it ends, I’m going to be able to still see these people."
Next, Brown will star alongside Chris Pratt in the upcoming Russo Brothers sci-fi adventure, The Electric State.
"To be able to go toe-to-toe with Chris Pratt!" she added. "It’s a very exciting opportunity that I never thought I’d be able to have, to be able to be treated the same as him and to be looked at and respected the same as him on the set by the production, by the studio."
Brown isn't the only one ready to say goodbye to the beloved series. Over the summer, David Harbour, who plays Hawkins Police Department chief Jim Hopper and Eleven's adopted father, expressed similar sentiments. "I don’t want to be just that character," he explained. "I don’t want to be just that guy."
"It’s tricky because you don’t want to shit on the people that love you for this thing that you did that you also love," Harbour continued. "But at the same time, you kind of want to leave the nest. I got more in me. I got different stuff in me, and I want you guys to see that. I don’t want people yelling 'Hopper' on the street every five minutes the rest of my life."
It will be the end of an era, that's for sure.