Holly Wheeler And Her Imaginary Friend Hold the Key To Stranger Things Season 5’s Creepiest Plotline
NEED TO KNOW
- Holly Wheeler is Mike and Nancy Wheeler’s younger sister in Stranger Things.
- In Season 5, she has become a main character with the Duffer brothers sharing that she is key to the plot of the finale.
- Holly Wheeler’s imaginary friend, “Mr Whatsit,” will also play a significant, ominous role in this season.
- Holly has been recast this season with 14-year-old New Zealand actress Nell Fisher.
In five seasons of Stranger Things we’ve met a lot of fresh faces, and unsurprisingly, there’s a new one in season 5—though she’s not a new character.
Holly Wheeler has been recast for season 5 by 13-year-old New Zealand actress Nell Fisher. The youngest Wheeler had previously been played by twin actresses Anniston and Tinsley Price. Holly has appeared throughout the series since season one, but now she’s grown up significantly and, we suspect, will play a much larger role in the finale.
Below, find everything you need to know about Holly Wheeler.
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Is Holly Wheeler Important In Stranger Things Season 5?
Image: Netflix
In season 5, the youngest Wheeler sibling develops an imaginary friendship. She’s first seen waving to a shadowy figure through the window at home, then later talks to the same invisible man at school (we catch a glimpse of him from her point of view). Her mum, Karen, is soon summoned to the school to discuss Holly’s worrying behaviour.
Ross Duffer has said Holly’s character — and her imaginary friend — is integral to bringing back the childhood magic that defined Stranger Things, now that the cast and characters have aged. “As we just broke season 5, we realised that Holly playing a larger role—that’s really when the season started to take shape. What we really wanted to do, and what that scene with her and Mike is talking about, is, obviously, our cast is older now, but we wanted to bring the show full circle to season 1,” he told Deadline. “And to really do that, we needed kids in there again, so it felt like the best way to do that was through Holly.”
Who Is Holly Wheeler’s Imaginary Friend?
Image: Holly Wheeler throughout the seasons
Holly is reading A Wrinkle in Time when her older brother Mike (Finn Wolfhard) comes to collect her from the principal’s office. “He’s protecting me. He says that there are monsters in Hawkins,” she tells Mike. Mike assures her there’s no such thing as monsters (a bald-faced lie), but says even if there were, she should be her own saviour.
Holly calls her imaginary friend Mr Whatsit, clearly modelled on the character Mrs Whatsit from Madeleine L’Engle’s award-winning novel. He’s also made himself known to some of Holly’s classmates, who refer to him by the same name—because they’ve all read the book for school.
“A Wrinkle in Time was one of our favourite books growing up. And so as we were talking about Holly’s storyline—just like how our kids in season 1 and later seasons used Dungeons & Dragons to help explain and understand these crazy goings-on—for Holly, she doesn’t play D&D, but she needed something else to help make sense of what’s happening in her world,” Ross said. “As we looked at various books and reread A Wrinkle in Time, we thought, ‘Well, this is perfect,’ because she can use it to help comprehend all these weird goings-on.”
When we see Mr Whatsit through Holly’s eyes, he appears as a man in a suit. That’s because Mr Whatsit is actually Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), but in his human form—Henry Creel. In a deeply unsettling turn, after Holly is snatched by the Demogorgon, he brings her to the Creel mansion, presents her with her favourite fruit, and sings her a lullaby.
“This super refined, very nice version of who he is—it’s this very warm, natural way of being that hopefully makes them feel at home. It’s so icky,” Bower said of Henry’s persona. “But hopefully it makes them feel at home enough for him to do what he needs to do, which is just disgusting, really, if you think about it.”
Given that other children in Hawkins are also familiar with “Mr Whatsit” (i.e. Henry Creel), we don’t want to think too hard about what that means for the rest of the town’s kids.
What’s Next For The Cast Of Stranger Things?
Nell Fisher might be stepping into the spotlight this season as Holly Wheeler, but many of the other Stranger Things cast are taking their final bow after years in the Upside Down. In ELLE Australia’s December “Party Issue”, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink (Max) opens up about her character’s fate after that devastating season 4 cliffhanger, her evolution across the series, and what filming the final season has been like. As the story comes full circle and the new kids on the block face fresh threats in Hawkins, Max’s journey shows just how far the original crew have come — and what they still have left to fight for. Grab your copy now.
Image: ELLE Australia
Ruby Feneley
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