Stranger Things creators are considering “George Lucas-ing” Will’s birthday
NetflixStranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers admit that they forgot Will Byers’ birthday in Season 4, but now they intend to fix it.
Hit Netflix series Stranger Things – a horror epic that takes place in the small yet cursed town of Hawkins – has become a cultural juggernaut, with the world eagerly waiting to see the conclusion of its fourth season next week.
The fourth series was, to many, a step up from the previous two seasons. However, it seems like Stranger Things 4 has taken it a step further, and omitted details of previous seasons completely.
Fans have spotted that a scene in Season 4 contradicts a key detail about one of the main characters, that being Will Byers’ birthday. But now that show co-creators the Duffer Brothers have been made aware of the mistake, they intend to fix it.
Stranger Things forgot Will Byer’s birthday
In Season 4 Episode 2 – aka the episode where Eleven hits a girl in the face with a roller skate – fans were able to spot a key date that appeared.
NetflixWhen Eleven’s bullies start mocking her at the roller rink – in a scene that riffs on Stephen King’s Carrie – someone starts recording the event, and the date on the video recording reads “MAR 22.86,” which means March 22nd, 1986.
Initially, this date may not seem of any major importance. However, if you go back and watch Stranger Things Season 2, that date appears again, as when Joyce Byers is trying to reach a mind-flayer possessed Will, she reveals that March 22 is actually Will’s birthday.
NetflixThis means that the other characters completely forgot Will’s birthday in Season 4, even his mother. In fact, the Duffer Brothers did too.
This has the potential to make this already sad scene completely tragic. Considering Will is already feeling left out during the roller rink scene, if everyone was also ignoring his birthday that would seem downright cruel.
And if the case is just that the Duffer Brothers forgot, not the characters, even that seems sad, considering the poorer storyline Will already received in Stranger Things Season 4.
However, fans don’t have to feel bad for Will for too long, as thankfully the Duffer Brothers wish to rectify their mistake. In an interview with Variety, they empathised with how tragic Will’s birthday being forgotten was: “It’s too sad!” Matt Duffer said.
“And it doesn’t make any narrative sense. But we were talking about it yesterday, and I think we’re going to George Lucas that.”
The Duffer Brothers are going to “George Lucas” Stranger Things
The Duffer Brothers plan to George Lucas Season 2, meaning they are planning to go back and change what’s already been released.
In their interview with Variety, both co-creators stated that they planned to go back to Season 2 and change the date that Joyce says, so it won’t clash with the date in Season 4.
Matt Duffer revealed that they were considering making Will’s new birthday May 22, “because ‘May’ can fit in Winona’s mouth” when she speaks in that Season 2 episode. “So that would be us George Lucas-ing the situation.”
NetflixWhile this may seem like a daring feat to some viewers, apparently this isn’t the first time they’ve pulled a George Lucas on Stranger Things.
“We have George Lucas’d things also that people don’t know about,” Matt continued. This mysteriously includes issues that eagle-eyed fans have spotted in Season 1, and The Duffers stated that they have even changed some things from Season 4 Volume 1 after it was already out on May 27.
“Some of the visual effects,” said Ross Duffer. “It’s not, like, story, but you’re essentially patching in shots. Netflix is – I don’t think they’ve ever allowed people to patch on opening week and even weekend. And we said, ‘Well, why not?’ And he said, ‘Well, it makes us nervous.’ And we’re like, ‘Well, maybe we try it this time.’ And it turned out fine.”
“I’m just glad we’ve turned ‘George Lucas’ into a verb,” Ross continued. And while neither brother would give a detailed reveal of what has already been changed, Ross did say, “You do have the physical copies though, the Blu-rays and stuff – you’d have to compare.”
So if any fans have physical copies of Stranger Things, take a look and see if you can get to the bottom of this whole George Lucas-ing mystery.