This ‘Stranger Things’ Star Bawled at Last Table Read for Series Finale

The cast of Stranger Things is reflecting on the last table read for the series finale — and opening up about who got teary-eyed towards the end of the episode.

Speaking with Variety for an interview published on Thursday, Nov. 13, the hit Netflix series’ cast and producers recalled the moment they sat read and read through the final script as a group — and Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers) shared that two of his younger costars, Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) and Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), were the first to get emotional.

“I was sitting in front of Noah and Finn. I assumed it might get emotional. But 20 minutes in — and we’re not even a third into the script — Noah is bawling his eyes out, like deep sobs. And then Finn was crying,” Heaton, 31, explained. “That really set everyone off.”

“It’s going to be interesting if that ever comes out, because it’ll be pretty embarrassing,” Wolfhard, 22, quipped in response. “The whole thing is just crying. I was like, ‘I’m not going to cry. I’m going to feel very normal, and it’s going to be great.’ And then halfway through, I just started totally bawling my eyes out.”

According to Schnapp, despite having filmed the finale, he can still only “imagine how that’s going to feel on screen — with scoring and real faces and not just words on a page.”

“It hit a lot of us,” the actor, 21, shared. “It felt like they were writing the end of our real people lives — it went beyond just the screenplay. I can’t spoil it, but like, I always connect my life to some of the beats that they wrote in the script.”

According to Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), the final table read also felt “reverent,” as the cast and crew prepared to wrap up the series, which has been going for nearly a decade.

“Everybody’s really anticipating this moment, and it also felt like a turning point, when you have it in your hands, and you finally have all these answers,” she told Variety. “It’s so complex and layered, all the things that you feel: You’re so grateful, you’re so happy, you’re so, so sad.”

“It was very beautiful. It was just this culmination of the whole thing,” Heaton added.

Producer Ross Duffer and Wolfhard also told the outlet that much of the finale’s dialogue reflected real life, as both the Stranger Things character and actors prepared for their stories to come to an end.

“Honestly, as we were writing that last script, which is the longest we’ve ever spent on a script before, what they’re talking about wasn’t really a conscious thing,” Duffer shared. “We were just talking about these characters. It really was once we did the final table read that it was like, ‘Oh, of course.’ That is when I saw how much it was mirroring their real-life experience.”

In January 2024, Netflix announced that the show had begun production for the final season, sharing a cast photo and confirming who was coming back.

Returning main cast members include Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery and Maya Hawke.

The cast picture also included Brett Gelman, Priah Ferguson, Cara Buono, Amybeth McNulty and Jamie Campbell Bower, the latter who joined the cast in season 4 as the show’s villain, Vecna.

In the fifth season, the Hawkins heroes are on the hunt for Vecna, who “has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown.”

“Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding,” reads the official plot synopsis. “As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Schnapp previously revealed that while he’s gotten to see several episodes from the hit Netflix series’ fifth and final season, he and his costars won’t be able to watch the finale episode until it premieres on the streamer on New Year’s Eve.

“The finale, they’re not gonna show any of us,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “So I won’t see it until the world sees it.”

Stranger Things season 5 premieres with Volume 1 on Nov. 26, followed by Volume 2 on Dec. 25, and the finale on Dec. 31. All episodes will drop at 8 p.m. ET.