The first part of the final season is out, and Holly Wheeler is suddenly not the quiet little background kid we remember. Mike and Nancy’s baby sister has a much bigger role in season five. But viewers noticed something right away. Holly does not look the same as she did before. And they’re right. The character has been recast.
In the earlier seasons, Holly was played by twins Anniston and Tinsley Price. For the final season, the role has been taken over by 14-year-old British actress Nell Fisher. Her casting is a clear sign that the show is going bigger and darker for its ending. Hawkins goes into lockdown, danger rises everywhere, and Eleven is on the hunt for Vecna once again.
So why did they change the actor? Holly needed to be older, speak more, and play a larger part in the story this time. Since the twins who played her before were much younger, it made sense to bring in someone older who could carry more scenes. Nell Fisher fits that perfectly.
Nell is a young rising star from the UK. She has already appeared in films and TV projects before landing Stranger Things. Taking on Holly Wheeler in the final season puts her in the spotlight at a huge moment in the series.
Why was Holly Wheeler recast in Stranger Things season five?
The Duffer Brothers decided to recast Holly Wheeler because they wanted her to be older in the final season. In the first season, which takes place in 1983, Holly is shown as a three year old. If the story had followed the original timeline, she would be around seven now. But season five makes it clear that Holly and the other kids in her class are about nine or ten.
Holly was always the youngest Wheeler kid and mostly stayed in the background. Season five changes that completely. She gets a big storyline and even has an episode named after her called The Vanishing Of Holly Wheeler. The writers needed someone who could handle more difficult scenes. Holly starts having scary visions and begins speaking to something no one else can see. Later, she is taken by a Demogorgon and pulled into the Upside Down. Her role suddenly becomes very important in the fight to save Hawkins. Because of this, the show needed an older actor who could manage the emotional and dramatic moments. They also wanted someone who still looked similar to the original Holly. The Duffer Brothers admitted the choice made them nervous, but they felt it was necessary.
Holly was originally played by twin sisters Anniston and Tinsley Price. They shared the role for the first four seasons from 2016 to 2022. The twins were born on 4 August 2012 and they recently turned 13. They were only three years old when season one was filmed. They had even appeared on The Walking Dead when they were just one year old.
Twins are often cast for very young roles because child labour rules limit how long a single child can film. Having twins allows the crew to switch between them and get more scenes done. This is the same idea behind the Olsen twins playing Michelle Tanner on Full House.
Now that Holly is older and has a major part in the plot, the show replaced the twins with one single actor who could take on the heavier role.
Who is Nell Fisher, the new replacement of Holly Wheeler?
Nell is a young actor from London, and even though she is only 14, she already has a strong list of roles behind her. She has appeared in films like Evil Dead Rise and Bookworm, and she has also been in the series My Life Is Murder.
She turned 14 this month, but most reports say she was actually around 12 during the main Stranger Things season five filming in 2024. Recently, she posted a sweet video on social media to honour the Price twins, who played Holly before her. She wrote, “This kid. These girls. So lucky to take on this role. Annie. Tinsley. Nell. Holly.” The twins replied with a very supportive message, saying they could not wait to see what she does with Holly and that they knew she would be amazing.
The Duffer Brothers have also talked about how they reshaped Holly’s character for the final season. They said Nell’s naturally outgoing personality inspired them. Ross Duffer explained that in the earlier seasons, Holly was not really written as a full character. She was simply a very young kid. Back then, the team would mostly film whatever the twins happened to be doing in the moment. There was no real voice or defined personality for Holly. With Nell now taking over, the writers finally had the chance to build a clearer and more expressive version of her.
He added, ‘In the initial scripts, Holly was a little shyer and a little more withdrawn. And then as we found Nell, who’s such a character, we started infusing Nell’s personality into Holly.’
