Stranger Things may have ended this week, but the show is still being talked about. According to TVLine, there was plenty of buzz about who played Winona Ryder’s (Lucas, Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael) young Joyce Maldondao in the flashback scenes. Many viewers thought the actress playing Joyce in episode 4 of the fifth season was AI-created, but they were mistaken.
In the episode entitled “Sorcerer,” Sadie Sink’s (The Whale, Dear Zoe) Max Mayfield relays how she came to explore the memories of Henry Creel aka Vecna. She’s taken back to his teenage memories at Hawkins High School during the late 1950’s. There, viewers observe Joyce handing out flyers for a school production of Oklahoma! This particular setting is also connected to the prequel stage play, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, that explores how a young Henry became a vessel for the diabolical forces of the Upside Down.
TVLine reports since Ryder has been on screen since she was a teenager, many assumed that filmmakers had pulled footage from past films, like Heathers and Edward Scissorhands, to create this youthful looking Ryder. But that isn’t the case
According to TV Line, teenage Joyce is played by real-life actress and model, Birdy (Twin Flame, Escort). Birdy is best known from the season finale of NBC’s Chicago Fire, which aired last May. Once the episode of Stranger Things aired, it did not take long for Birdy to post about her appearance on her Instagram page, confirming her identity on the show. She posted, “not AI Winona” continued with hashtags, #strangerthings5 and #youngjoyce, with a behind-the-scenes screenshot from the set.
Season five of Stranger Things premiered on Nov. 26 with its first four episodes. The next volume was released on Christmas Day, and the two-hour season finale dropped on New Year’s Eve. All five seasons are currently available to stream on Netflix.