The Stranger Things Cast's Audition Tapes Will Make You Love Them Even More

The world has absolutely fallen in love with the "Stranger Things" cast, which is made up of Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Cara Buono, and Matthew Modine. Season 4 of the series, which was split into two volumes, premiered in May and July.

After what might be the most intense season yet, with the show's main characters forced to face Vecna (played by Jamie Campbell Bower), the series will have one final season to wrap up the story of our favorite Hawkins residents. 

With the show debuting back in 2016, the cast and characters have grown quite a bit over the years. So it's impossible not to feel nostalgic when watching the audition videos that led to the kids getting the roles of Will, Eleven, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin.

The audition tapes that made these actors stand out

During an interview, Carmen Cuba (the casting director for "Stranger Things") took Vanity Fair and viewers through her casting process while expressing her foresight for each character's future on the show. This includes the first audition tapes submitted by Schnapp, Brown, Wolfhard, McLaughlin, and Matarazzo.

"If I'm honest, when we cast 'Stranger Things,' we had no idea that it was going to go, that it was going to be a huge hit," Cuba shared. "We had no idea it was going to go on for how long... I was really just trying to get the best version of it in the present."

She continued to say, "These parts were not likely gonna be able to be pulled off by a kid who didn't have some experience, so while some of my process involves being out in the world and seeing a kid that looks a certain way... it was going to be such hard work it was gonna be every day for months on end and very specific dialogue."

It's hard to imagine anyone else bringing these beloved characters to life, and the actors have all done such an amazing job since being cast.