Winona Ryder Agreed To Join Stranger Things Under One Condition

Before Netflix's "Stranger Things" became a pop culture juggernaut, the show's casting director, Carmen Cuba, came to showrunners The Duffer Brothers with a pitch: What if Joyce Byers, the frantic mother of one of the missing protagonists, was played by Winona Ryder? Looking back on the experience, Matt and Ross Duffer told Rolling Stone they "immediately fell in love with that idea," saying part of the reason they were excited was because Ryder was a staple of the 1980s films the Duffers grew up watching and would be paying homage to throughout the series. "Winona was a huge part of our childhood," Matt said. "We had a lot of her movies in our VHS collection."

Ryder, who admitted she didn't even know what "streaming" was when she was approached about the role in 2015, was simultaneously intrigued and terrified by the prospect, and she decided to take the part — but she made it clear there was one stipulation that was non-negotiable for her.

"At the time, Tim [Burton] and I were talking about the 'Beetlejuice' sequel," Ryder told Harper's Bazaar in a recent video interview. "There have been moments over the last 15 years where we thought it was going to happen, but that's the thing ... it had to be perfect with everybody in order for it to happen. But I remember at my first meeting with the Duffer Brothers, I said, 'As long as if "Beetlejuice 2" happens, you'll let me go do that...' They agreed. Luckily it worked out. That was my one condition."

"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" has indeed been in development for decades, and luckily, the timing worked out so that the "Stranger Things" team didn't need to make any sacrifices when the film finally came together. Production on the movie started in May 2023 and almost finished before last year's SAG-AFTRA strike went into effect; Burton eventually wrapped in November, following a few more days of shooting once the labor stoppage was resolved. Meanwhile, "Stranger Things" season 5 — which was delayed due to a combination of the pandemic and the writers' and actors' strikes — didn't begin filming until January 2024.

Interestingly, the original "Beetlejuice" looms large over the Duffer Brothers in the world of "Stranger Things": The brothers have said that the show cannot go past 1988, when the first film was released in theaters, because then the show would have to reckon with its characters watching a movie starring a woman who looks suspiciously like Joyce Byers. They've referred to it as "the threshold we can't cross," because "once Winona is a superstar in the world, the show has to stop." So, while we have plenty of questions about how "Stranger Things" season 5 will resolve, it seems clear there won't be too massive a time jump. Season 4 was set in March of 1986, so despite the child actors aging into full-blown adults while still needing to pretend that they're high school students, the Ghost with the Most seems to be getting the last laugh as he boxes in one of the most popular shows in Netflix history.

For more about how the "Stranger Things" cast came together, check out this video.