How Netflix filmed young Will Byers in Stranger Things 5 for controversial scene
The wait for Stranger Things to return has been long and arduous for fans of the Netflix show, yet it didn't take long for a decision to split opinion with the opening 'young Will Byers' scene dividing viewers.
It's nearly been a decade since the 80s inspired supernatural series Stranger Things first arrived on our Netflix screens, yet the over three year wait for the fifth and final season has been painful for many fans.
Many have been left frustrated that an eight episode season could take quite so long to make, especially as it's a show centered around children who have aged beyond the point of the narrative, and this year's return to Hawkins has been met almost immediately with backlash from some parts of the fan base.
As shared by LADbible, the opening scene of 'Chapter One: The Crawl' features a young version of Will Byers, one of the streaming show's main protagonists, as it appeared to confirm a significant question that many have had about the Upside Down.
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What you might have noticed when watching though is that it's not actually now 21-year-old Noah Schnapp that appears in this scene, but instead a much younger actor who has been adjusted with a little bit of movie magic.
It would have been rather difficult to make the flashback believable with Schnapp in his current state, so 11-year-old Like Kokotek took his place, and was on the receiving end of visual effects that saw the older Will's face transplanted onto his own.
Reports indicate that Lola VFX is the company that was behind this transformation, using Schnapp's face and hair to make Kokotek look convincing as a young Will Byers, but some aren't quite as convinced as Netflix hoped.
"Why does Will look like a video game character," wrote one frustrated viewer on X, whereas another declared that "they gots to stop with the young AI versions of the actors."
There's no evidence that AI – at least in the way that people refer to it now – was used in the making of this scene, but instead it's likely advanced visual effects that we have previously seen in films like The Irishman.
Some have applauded this little trick though, with a third post noting that the "CGI is AMAZING idc THAT IS S1 WILL BYERS," with another sitting in the middle of the road, arguing that while "the CGI on his face looks kinda weird," it's made up by the fact that "this scene adds so much lore."