Stranger Things Season 5 has started streaming and as fans rushed to binge on the new episodes of the final season, Netflix saw a temporary outage. The wait has been worth it as apart from the new twists, a couple of fresh characters are adding to the buzz. One of them is Holly Wheeler, who has started trending soon after the first four episodes of the new season dropped.
But is Holly Wheeler really a new character?
No. While the fans were left scratching their head about the familiar-sounding name, she’s actually a recurring character in the first four seasons of Stranger Things. However, in the new season, she’s one of the main characters and a prominent part of the storyline.
For the uninitiated, Holly Wheeler is the younger sister of Nancy and Mike Wheeler, and the daughter of Karen and Ted. She was earlier played by twin sisters Anniston and Tinsley Price, but in the new season, Nell Fisher has joined the star cast, as the three-year-old is slightly grown up now.
Who is Nell Fisher?
14-year-old Nell Fisher has a British mother and a New Zealander father and she has been part of Bookworm, Evil Dead Rise, Northspur, and Choose Love, and My Life is Murder Season 2. Nell currently stays in London, though she has also lived in South Africa.
What’s her role in Stranger Things Seasons 5 (Spoilers ahead)
First four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5 are already out and according to Decider, little Holly of Season 1, who is just 3 at the time, is now around 9-10 years old in the current season.
By the end of the fourth episode, “Holly Wheeler is not only in the Upside Down, but trapped in the prison of Vecna’s mind,” as per Decider.
Something ‘strange’ does happen to Holly in the Season 1 too as the little one saw the flickering lights in Will (Noah Schnapp’s) room, a hint of the monster. As per New York Post, in Season 5, Holly has an imaginary friend named Mr. Whatsit, taken from the classic novel – A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.
The imaginary friend it turns was the villain, Vecna, played by Jamie Campbell Bower, who conspired to abduct children. Imprisoned in the old Creel house in the Upside Down by Vecna, Holly is cautioned not to leave the house to avoid monsters and is promised her family will join her soon. Holly wears a blue dress and a cloak, as she spends her time in the Upside Down.
Why Holly became a central character in Stranger Things Season 5?
“As we just broke Season 5, we realized that Holly playing a larger role, that’s really when the season started to take shape. What we really wanted to do, and what that scene with her and Mike is talking about is, obviously our cast is older now, but we wanted to bring back the show full circle to Season 1,” Ross Duffer Told Deadline. “And to really do that, we needed kids in there again, so it felt like the best way to do that was through Holly.”
