Kate Bush and Stranger Things have become synonymous with each other since the fourth season’s release. Her 1985 single Running Up That Hill was used at several points throughout the show, bringing Max out of Vecna’s hold as the song happened to be her favorite. The popularity led to a surge in streams for the Kate Bush song, bringing the ’80s star back to the spotlight.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Duffer brothers were asked whether they would try to do something similar in Season 5 with other songs. Matt Duffer said he didn’t think they would even try, saying they had no idea Running Up That Hill would resonate with audiences the way it did.
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Stranger Things first premiered in 2016, and the cast certainly looks quite older than when they first began. As the kids continue to grow, it’s become difficult for the writers to find the right way to portray them. However, Matt Duffer tells THR that the move to Season 4 wasn’t as drastic as some previous years.
“I’ve even seen articles that are like ‘What will be Stranger Things‘ next Kate Bush moment?’ There won’t be another one! If we attempt that with another song, it will fail. Ross, our music supervisor and I all had a list of possible songs we wanted, and ‘Running Up That Hill’ was all of them. I’d be lying if I said I knew it was going to resonate in the way it did. I think the reason why is because she was so ahead of her time. It feels very modern. And so kids are hooked on it. I don’t even really understand what TikTok is. I emailed Kate Bush, ‘Apparently you’re big on TikTok.’ She was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve heard.’”
Ross Duffer reiterated his brother’s statement, saying they constantly have to age up their characters while writing to fit the time difference between seasons.
“The pause benefited the writing, because we were able for the first time to see exactly how much the kids had changed. Also, for the first time, we were able to complete all the scripts before shooting. [The aging] was not as dramatic as you would think, even with that six-month gap. The season two to season three jump was the one that jolted us the most.”
The wait for Stranger Things 5 shouldn’t be nearly as long as the previous ones, with the writers’ room beginning work on the climatic conclusion to the series sometime this month. With a time jump already confirmed, the drastic age difference between the characters and their real-life counterparts may not be as noticeable.
“For season four, we just assumed, ‘They’re going to be older than whatever we can imagine.’ And so we wrote to that, and we aged them up even beyond [their real ages]. As shocking as it is to show up every year, it was less shocking than season three, because that was really when they went through big changes. It was like, ‘Who is this?’”