We’ve seen a couple of major characters come and go in the first two seasons of ‘Stranger Things‘ and Netflix was able to bring back one of the departed for the very first episode of the third season. The moment was short, sweet, and quite touching. As to how it ended up happening was actually quite straight forward and easier than one would expect according to co-creator Matt Duffer.
If you haven’t seen the first episode, the following is obviously going to have a spoiler in it.
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When ‘Stranger Things’ returned for the third season, we saw Sheriff Hopper try to get Joyce Byers to go out on a date with him. She declined, saying that she already had plans for the evening. We would later learn that the plans involved returning to an empty house and making a light dinner to have by herself. Only, the dinner had her re-living time spent with her deceased boyfriend Bob played by the always outstanding Sean Astin.
As to getting Astin to return, Duffer shared that:
“Sean was really great and gracious. He flew in for one day to shoot that scene with Winona. We had talked about, like, we can just flash back to them dancing or whatever, but we really thought it would hit a little bit harder if it was a new moment between the two of them. That was hard, too, just having Sean back for one day. Winona and Sean are especially close. It just made everybody miss him that much more.”
While an entirely new scene would have been great, just showing the comfort these two characters had for one another made experiencing Joyce’s loss with her that much more of an emotional gut-punch.
Were you thrilled that we ended up getting a new moment with Sean Astin’s Bob in the third season of ‘Stranger Things’? Do you feel that having the two sharing a casual meal together was the best way to use Astin’s time, or would you have preferred a new scene with the actor? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Entertainment Weekly
