With the release of Stranger Things Season 5 inching closer, the cast of the smash-hit Netflix series opened up about their final days on the show, and so did Maya Hawke. She joined the lore back in Season 3 in 2019 as Robin Buckley, a co-worker of Steve Harrington at the Starcourt Mall’s ice cream parlor, Scoops Ahoy, and described the ending as “just bitter.”
Talking to Variety, she candidly confessed,
If you’d asked me three years ago, I would have said that I thought it would have been bittersweet, and it was — only in that it’s so sweet to love people so much. But the ending really was just bitter. It was just really sad to say goodbye to everybody. And not that it’s goodbye forever, but it will never be the same.
Unlike the other leading cast, Hawke has only been a part of the show for two seasons now, with this forthcoming season marking her third official season on the series. So it took her some time to fully adjust. And when she finally did, she realized that things were coming to an end. As Hawke continued to share during the interview,
You know, my first two seasons, I couldn’t ditch my “new kid” syndrome. I felt like a friend who’d been invited to Thanksgiving, you know? In the last season, I really felt like a part of the family. Which was sad in its own way, because it’s like, “Oh, I just got to be a part of the family, and now the family’s breaking up!”
To finally be comfortable enough to call your cast mates your family on the sets of the show, and then realizing that the feeling wasn’t going to last too long? Well, that must have been truly heartbreaking for Hawke. But while that’s that, the actress also got candid about how she feels the creators did a “beautiful job” at choosing the last scene for the tightly-knit cast to shoot.
Maya Hawke Feels Stranger Things Creators Did a “Beautiful Job” at Choosing the Last Scene
During the interview with Variety, Maya Hawke also talked about the last scene of Stranger Things and how they concluded filming. Expressing gratitude at how everything turned out in the end for the actors and their last moment on the sets, she said,
I will be forever grateful to them for allowing our last moment not to be like, “OK, and now throw a grenade at the monster again. Cut! That’s a wrap on Maya!” It was a monumental day, and they allowed it to really be that — and feel like that.
Hawke further talked about the last scene that the cast shot together, which “mirrored the emotional experience” that the actors were going through as people in bringing the series to a successful conclusion. Calling it a “gift”, Hawke explained,
They did such a beautiful job of choosing a last scene that mirrored the emotional experience that we were going through as people in ending the show. And that’s not a spoiler, because you don’t know my experience! But it was such a gift, because it allowed the feelings that we were working through with each other on that day to become a part of the scene, and to be this integrated emotional experience.
Judging from her words, Hawke certainly seems to have had the best experience on the sets of the hit Netflix show. And that sure is something to say, for she herself confessed how she feels her final day on the show “changed me as an actor forever.”
Maya Hawke on Stranger Things‘ Final Day: “I think it changed me as an actor forever”
Confiding in Variety, Maya Hawke only further doubled down on her emotions and gratitude toward the show and how everything came to a satisfying conclusion. Sharing her experience and how she feels it changed her, she said,
I think it changed me as an actor forever. I am a different actor today, and I think a better actor, because of that opportunity to do a scene that was on such a high-stakes emotional day of my life that was also a high stakes emotional scene. I felt like I got to connect a red wire and a blue wire, and all of a sudden, I understood how to be present as an actor.
She pointed out how she feels “forever changed,” explaining,
I feel forever changed, and like I have access to a part of my emotional experience when I’m working that I didn’t used to have access to. It was just this extraordinary gift.
Oh, and by the way, shooting that last day wasn’t as easy for her as you might expect from her ‘grateful’ comments. In fact, if anything, Hawke herself admitted that she spent hours weeping on the series, both before shooting, during shooting, and even after shooting.
Opening up about the “weepy” experience, she said,
I did spend 12 hours in a rolling cycle of weeping. I would start weeping, and then I’d have to pull myself together to go back to the beginning of a scene. And then in the middle of the scene, I would start weeping again. And then I would weep after it was over. It was a weepy, weepy day.
Well, working on the project for this long – she has been attached to it for more than six years now – certainly had the cast members a bit too attached to each other, so no doubt it was hard for them to let go. Plus, Maya Hawke wasn’t the only one to drop such emotional comments about the finale, as numerous other stars only further echoed her thoughts.
Then again, nothing lasts forever – not to mention, we’re also just glad that they’re not milking the Stranger Things franchise as a cash cow, which would have made it lose its authenticity. So even if it’s ending and the feeling’s bittersweet, guess it’s only for the best.
What do you think about this? Don’t you agree? Or do you have some other thoughts, opinions, or takes on this that you might want to share with us? Whatever it may be, make sure to let us know in the comments section below!
Stranger Things Season 5 drops on Netflix in three parts: Volume 1 on November 26, 2025, Volume 2 on December 25, 2025, and the grand finale (Episode 8) on December 31, 2025.
