Finn Wolfhard say he’s ‘antsy’ to film ‘Stranger Things 5’ as creators press ‘pause’ amid writers’ strike

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — The wait for the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” will likely be longer than anybody had initially anticipated given the current writers’ strike, and Finn Wolfhard is just as eager as everyone else to learn the fate Hawkins and the characters who live there.

“We’re pressing pause until the strike is figured out,” Wolfhard said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on Monday, adding that he’s “antsy to start (filming) because I’m a fan of the show first and foremost.”

Wolfhard has played the character Mike Wheeler since the supernatural 1980s-set thriller series first premiered in 2016. He said in the EW interview that he’s excited to start filming the hit show’s final season “to just see where every character’s journey takes them.”

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike on May 2 in an effort to seek better compensation and other concessions for screenwriters from studios and streaming companies.

In November, “Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer teased that production on Season 5 was “full steam ahead,” with the first script already turned in and work happening on the second.

Shortly after the strike began in May, the Duffer Brothers posted a statement on social media that “writing does not stop when filming begins,” therefore production “is not possible” until a deal is made.

For Wolfhard, feelings about the end of the show are a bit of a mixed bag.

“I’ve tried not to think about it or process how sad it’s gonna be, obviously,” he said in Monday’s interview, adding that he feels like the end is akin to a “graduation of sorts” for his castmates and a lot of the crew members who have been part of the production since day one.

“Stranger Things” was Wolfhard’s first Hollywood breakout role alongside his co-stars Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp, who were all kids when the series began.

On the other hand, Wolfhard, who is now 20, says he’s still “excited to finish ‘Stranger Things’ and see what’s out there after.”

Hopefully, what’s out there isn’t a Demogorgon.

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CNN’s Lisa Respers France contributed to this report.