Which is true: the golden rule of belonging to the Stranger Things fandom is to always expect the unexpected. But Gaten notes how cautious he is about revealing spoilers, a trait he’s proud of — one that he thinks makes him more worthy of knowing sacred secrets of the show than, say, David Harbour, who has long been rumored to know how the entire Stranger Things saga ends.
“Who would I trust the most with? I think Sadie [Sink]. I would probably trust [her] with any secret from the show,” Gaten says. “I think that she would have the least desire to talk about it in public interviews… I wouldn’t trust Noah.”
Gaten doesn’t pay too much attention to the fan theories, only occasionally dropping into a deep dive Google hole. “That’s like 3 a.m. me. That’s me by myself, like Christmas pajamas in July,” he says. “There’s so many devoted people to this show and so many theories, and most of them are just bonkers. Some of them are just ridiculous and so much fun to read, and some of them are so cocky about it, like they know that this is what’s going on in the show and they couldn’t be further from the truth, and that’s my favorite.”
Though, the fans who devote hours to uncovering plot details or twists before the episodes are released confuse him. “I don’t get it. Especially if it’s a show you love and are devoted to, I never want spoilers — if anybody were to give me spoilers, I’d be so pissed off!” Gaten says. “So I don’t understand the desire and the fire and fury. We’re so close, just no, please no.”
Fair, but an easy perspective to have when you know how the season will end before the rest of the world. After reading the finale script, Gaten remembers feeling both genuine surprise and satisfaction.
“It’s not an ending like any ending that we’ve made before. And that explains it enough, I think. People will know what I mean once they see it,” he says cryptically. “It breaks Stranger Things formula, which is cool. Even though it’s a formula that’s worked quite well and [that] we’ve utilized quite nicely over the past three seasons. But yeah, I think big changes in the season calls for big changes when it comes to wrapping it up.”
Louisiana Mei Gelpi