- - “Stranger Things” Creators Reveal They Almost Picked This Holiday Classic Kids Book Instead of “A Wrinkle in Time ”(Exclusive)

Julia MooreDecember 27, 2025 at 7:00 AM

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Courtesy of Netflix

Jamie Campbell Bower as Henry Creel and Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler in 'Stranger Things' season 5

Warning: This story contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 5, Volume 2.

A Wrinkle in Time plays a major role in Stranger Things season 5, as the central villain and his agenda are all compared to characters and plotlines from the 1962 novel

Matt and Ross Duffer, who created the Netflix series together, tell PEOPLE why they settled on A Wrinkle in Time over their other option and how the classic book sets the stage for a dramatic conclusion to the show

Volumes 1 and 2 of Stranger Things season 5 are now streaming on Netflix, and the finale drops Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET

A Wrinkle in Time plays a major role in Stranger Things' fifth and final season, but the creators almost went with an entirely different story.

Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 classic is the book that young Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) and her classmates are reading in school when she and others start seeing their very own Mr. Whatsit (Jamie Campbell Bower). He tells them there are monsters coming for them and their families, just like Meg in the book, but they have the power to save everyone.

In Volume 2, Mr. Whatsit takes it a step further, as he compares the supposed threat to Holly and her classmates to the evil "black thing" in A Wrinkle in Time.

The show's creators, brothers Ross and Matt Duffer, 41, chose L'Engle's book because, as Matt explains, it "was a staple of our childhood and something that we read when we were around Holly's age, and it had an impact on us."

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Ross Duffer and Matt Duffer attend PaleyLive's 'Stranger Things' - The Final Season Celebration at The Paley Museum on December 18, 2025 in New York City

"So one [reason why we chose it] was, we believed that she was going to be reading it in school. And two, it had some really nice parallels, we thought, in terms of the story we had planned for Holly."

But Ross reveals that the brothers almost went with an entirely different book.

"It was originally The Polar Express in the early scripts," Ross tells PEOPLE, referring to the 1985 children's picture book that was adapted into a 2004 film starring Tom Hanks. "And he was going to be the conductor, not Mr. Whatsit, but then we realized the book was a little too young."

They also felt that "Mr. Whatsit sounds cooler and creepier," Matt says.

If they had stuck with The Polar Express, Bower, 37, who plays Mr. Whatsit, as well as Vecna, Henry Creel and One, would've worn a conductor's cap and picked Holly up "on a train," Matt explains, to bring her to the North Pole.

The initial idea "could've worked," Ross says.

Courtesy of Netflix

Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler in 'Stranger Things' season 5

Holly — and her 11 classmates, who were taken into the Upside Down in Vol. 1 — is put through the ringer throughout season 5, and the brothers joke, "As you know, if you've seen the show, we love putting children in danger."

"Our cast is mostly grown up now, but we're like, 'Well, now we have this new child, so let's just put her in continual danger,'" Matt says. "There was never any doubt in our minds that we were going to do that."

They were "really obsessed with horror and monsters" during their own childhood, Matt continues, which also brings them inspiration.

"We loved scaring ourselves, we loved the IT miniseries, because we were the same age as those kids were, and those kids were getting terrorized by an interdimensional being, Pennywise. So I don't know, I think that's one reason we enjoy doing it. Either that or we're sort of twisted, I'm not sure."

Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler and Jamie Campbell Bower as Mr. Whatsit in 'Stranger Things' season 5

Bower says he was "terrified" to play Mr. Whatsit this season. "It was a really fun experience, but it was also one that I was quite scared of as well, because I didn't necessarily see Whatsit in Henry," he tells PEOPLE.

"They're not really the same, so it definitely felt like I was building something new."

Working so frequently with young actors this season added some pressure, too. "Children see through the bull----. They know. They just know when you're being real with them. That's really scary to sit there in front of somebody who's like, 'Are you lying to me?'"

Volumes 1 and 2 of Stranger Things season 5 are streaming now on Netflix. The finale drops Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”