31/12/2025

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Stranger Things set for final bow

T HE hit science-fiction-horror series Stranger Things returns today with three new episodes from its fifth and final season, ahead of the grand finale tomorrow. Shattering streaming records since it first hit screens in 2016, the Netflix show follows a group of teenagers in a small American town as they take on supernatural creatures and a parallel universe. Here are five things to know. Star-studded cast Stranger Things brought back 1980s icons such as actress Winona Ryder, who earned a Golden Globe nomination in 2017 for her role as Joyce Byers. In another dose of 80s nostalgia, Robert Englund – the actor behind horror icon Freddy Krueger – made a cameo appearance in season four. The series has also transformed the careers of its younger actors, including Millie Bobby Brown, who rose to fame at just 12 years old. Now 21, the actress produces and stars in her own blockbuster films, such as the popular Enola Holmes saga. Actor Finn Wolfhard, 23, who plays Mike Wheeler on the show, has found wider success with roles in the It and Ghostbusters franchises. Speaking last year, Wolfhard said the cast wanted to give all the characters a “proper send-off”. “You try to find that balance of a huge ensemble and try to find the perfect ending for everyone.” 1980s nostalgia The Duffer Brothers, creators of the hit series, captured the spirit of 1980s classics such as Steven Spielberg’s movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , the Nightmare on Elm Street films and Stephen King’s It novel. Across five seasons, the characters take on supernatural monsters while dressed in baggy jeans, T-shirts and trainers. From Will Byers’s bowl cut to Steve Harrington’s tousled mullet, the show has given old-school hairstyles

Stranger Things universe The show has made its way on to stages in London’s West End and on Broadway with the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow , launched in late 2023. The prequel, set in 1959, explores the backstory of Henry Creel, also known as the villain Vecna in the show. Netflix has announced for 2026 an animated spin-off series set between the second and third seasons. A mystery novel centred around Mike’s older sister Nancy Wheeler has also just been released. – AFP

o Five things about cult favourite TV show as it ends with fifth season

From left: Ross Duffer, Gaten Matarazzo, Wolfhard, Charlie Heaton, Jamie Campbell Bower, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Maya Hawke, Matt Duffer and Caleb McLaughlin.

launch, is reflected in its presence in public spaces. Major retailers have dedicated corners to the show, such as HMV on Oxford Street in London or Galeries Lafayette in Paris. “The series made me love the 1980s – I watched it with my father, who lived through that era,” said Pauline Lehobey, a 29-year-old veterinary assistant in Paris, while holding a Demogorgon figurine.

One of the most-watched shows on Netflix, it transformed the streaming giant into a cultural powerhouse. Each episode has an estimated budget of tens of millions of dollars, surpassing the production price tags of many Hollywood films. Marketing masterclass The success of its fifth chapter, which tallied nearly 60 million views at

new life. Kate Bush’s 1985 song Running Up That Hill , which is featured in the series, also topped UK charts in 2022 and reached one billion streams on Spotify the following year – decades after its initial release. Early Netflix smash Nine years after it began, Stranger Things has become a global phenomenon.

Wolfhard at the Paley Museum in New York City. – GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

Timothee Chalamet fully immerses in Marty Supreme role what he described as “a different kind of energy”. achieve fame and fortune through a sport little known in the US.

PULLING out the stops in a high octane promotional campaign, Timothee Chalamet has fully immersed himself in the role of Marty Supreme , a 1950s table tennis player consumed by grand ambitions, said director Josh Safdie. The unlikely story of an American table tennis champion has become

an end-of-year cinematic event in the US, with Chalamet-headed publicity garnering fevered attention. Safdie said the 29-year-old Franco American actor was tailor-made for the title role and wholly committed to the project from the get-go. From his first meeting with Chalamet, the US filmmaker sensed

Safdie said: “Marty has a purpose. He has a dream... He is in service of this thing. “It’s his goal and it’s his passion and it’s his job to elevate the sport of ping pong. That’s what makes him great” even if, at times, that pursuit leads him down a dead-end path. “Shooting a sport that’s never really been put on film before” presented a challenge, the director said. Chalamet was “involved very early” in the film, even “before there was a script” six years ago, he added. “He was a collaborator on the film more than just an actor,” said the filmmaker. Chalamet – the Dune superstar who recently portrayed Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown – is “very funny and physical” as an actor, Safdie said. “He’s a dancer,” Safdie said. The actor trained rigorously in table tennis for the role and the match scenes reach heights of tension unexpected for the sport. “It involved really intense choreography,” said Safdie, admitting he broke into a few cold sweats while preparing for the shoot.

“He couldn’t stand still,” Safdie recalled in an interview with the press in France earlier this month. “He had a really intense energy. He had this idea of himself. He was Timmy Supreme,” the director said, admiring the actor’s absolute confidence in his own talent. Ahead of the film’s release, Chalamet has staged a series of press grabbing stunts, appearing surrounded by an entourage sporting orange, ping-pong-ball shaped heads and handing out jackets emblazoned with Marty Supreme that have become a coveted fashion statement. “This is a movie about sacrifice and the pursuit of a dream,” the actor said in an appearance on US TV host Jimmy Fallon’s show. “We live in a bleak time, especially for young people, and the film is an attempt at an antidote to that and to

Safdie pored over hours of match footage from the 1940s to the 1970s, meticulously breaking down every point that caught his attention. Then, he recalled, “they would play the points” in endless takes – with or without the ball – repeating choreography timed “down to the microsecond”. – AFP Poster for the movie. – PIC FROM INSTAGRAM @MARTYSUPREME

continue to dream big.” More than just actor

Marty Supreme , loosely based on the life of table tennis star Marty Reisman, tells the story of a man driven by the belief that he can

Chalamet (left) and Tyler, the Creator at the Marty Supreme New York premiere.