The Stranger Things buzz is still being talked about. According to TVLine The buzz about Winona Ryder’s (Lucas, Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael) flash back scenes all look very familiar. Many viewers thought that the flashbacks in episode 4 of the fifth season was AI created, but they were mistaken. Sadie Sink (The Whale, Dear Zoe) who plays Max Mayfield and Jamie Campbell Bower (The Haunting in Wicker Park, The Lord of the Tings: The Rings of Power) who portrays Vecna. As these two characters explore high school memories at Hawkins High school during the late 1950’s. There viewers observe Joyce Maldonado (Ryder) handing out papers for a school production of Oklahoma! Joyce Maldonado later becomes Joyce Byers after her marriage to Lonnie Byers, portrayed by actor Ross Partidge (What We Find on the Road, The Last Thing He Told Me).
TVLine reported that Ryder spent a lot of her teenage years filming 1980 and 1990’s film such as Heather’s, The Age of Innocence and Edward Scissorhands and many more the producers had a lot of footage that they could draw from to recreate Ryder’s image as a high school teenager of the 1950’s.
According to TVLine, in the episode titled Sorcerer most views thought that the teenage Ryder was AI generated. In reality, the character was actually played by an up-and-coming actress/Model, Birdy (Twin Flame, Escort). Birdy is best known from the NBC season finale, Chicago Fire which aired last May. Once the episode of Stranger Things aired, it did not take long for Birdy post about her appearance on her instagram page that confirmed her identity on the show. She posted, “not AI Winona” continued with hashtags, #strangerthings5 and #youngjoyce. With a screenshot from behind-the-scenes photo of young Joyce at Hawkins High school with Birdy passing out the flyers to the high school production of Oklahoma.