Credit: Edited by Inside the MagicNetflix has canceled their nearly complete $40 million film The Mothership, a sci-fi adventure film, directed by Matthew Charman after encountering a problem that the cast of Stranger Things has also had to face.
Whenever a production is dealing with child actors, time is not on their side. During their younger years, child actors are constantly growing, and it can be the difference of a few months that can turn what seemed to be a very young actor into a growing adolescent who has hit puberty. If we think about Stranger Things, it is hard to imagine the cast’s younger years now that we know them as teenagers in the show, and adults in real life.
Between seasons four and five of the hit Netflix series, the production had to face a dilemma that many others encountered: the SAG/AFTRA strike. The strike put a delay in production, adding over 100 days the schedule and leaving the ever-changing youth of the cast to continue to age. Now, when looking at Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and the rest of the younger cast, it is clear that they have significantly aged since the fourth season’s finale.
So, carrying on directly after for their fifth and final season would no longer make sense.
For the Duffer brothers to make the physical changes make sense, the fifth season has included a time jump. Business Insider shared, “Six years later, the discrepancy between their ages and those of their characters’ has become more noticeable. Millie Bobby Brown is approximately four years older than her character, Eleven, while stars like Caleb McLaughlin and Sadie Sink are approximately six years older than their characters Lucas and Max in the show.
“I’m sure we will do a time jump,” Ross Duffer, who co-created the series and serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside his brother, Matt Duffer said. He added that “ideally” seasons four and five would have filmed back to back, “but there was just no feasible way to do that.”
Now, The Mothership is encountering the same issue.
Fandom Wire stated, “Halle Berry’s Netflix film The Mothership finished its production work in 2021. However, there was no news about its release for over two years. Recently, Netflix surprised everyone when they announced that they were scrapping the film altogether after spending almost $40 million on the project.”
The $40 million endeavor commenced filming amid the challenges of the pandemic in 2021, encountering a series of setbacks along the way. These obstacles included scheduling conflicts, reshoots, labor strikes, and most recently, continuity problems arising from growth spurts among certain child actors in the cast.
During a news conference held on January 31, Netflix’s content chief, Bela Bajaria, attributed the decision to shelve the movie to “numerous production and story challenges.” Bajaria emphasized that the consensus among all involved was that halting production was the most appropriate course of action.
Lots of the reshoots that were needed were not able to happen due to the continuity that would be disrupted due to the aging children. The production would have had to theoretically re-film the entire movie, which they opted not to do.
Halle Berry will be starring in another Netflix film, however, called The Union, and all actors would have been paid their contracted amount for the completed work, so while they did not get to see their movie premiere or walk a red carpet, they still were compensated for their work.
As for Stranger Things, the fifth and final season is currently filming; however, it will not be released in 2025. An official release date has not yet been announced, but 2026 seems like a likely bet that fans can bank on.
Although the storyline for Stranger Things 5 is still under wraps, co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer have made it clear that it won’t culminate in a dream or fantasy scenario.
They intend to trim the length of episodes for the final season compared to previous ones, ensuring a distinct and powerful narrative. Matt Duffer suggests a significant evolution for Dustin, influenced by Eddie’s demise, and characterizes the forthcoming season as akin to season one but intensified. The protagonists will swiftly embark on a quest to confront Vecna and uncover further revelations along the way. The cast has also shared that they think more severe consequences is needed for characters this season, meaning more death.
Did you know that Netflix was filming a movie call The Mothership?