Scandals and boycotts: Why Stranger Things season five felt like the show had been cursed

In the years it took for Stranger Things season five to finally release on Netflix today, it got to a point where I wondered if anyone would be even watching. Okay well that may be a tad overly zealous because it’s the most watched shows in Netflix history so obviously people would have watched – but there has been so much scandal and backlash involving the cast over the last few years that led to many people actively campaigning for there to be a boycott. Whether it was political division, randomly disappearing or a very big album with some hefty allegations there’s been a lot going on – so here’s why Stranger Things felt cursed before season five.

The Noah Schnapp backlash

In 2023, Noah Schnapp just a few months after the October 7th attack was seen to be part of a group of people who were gleefully handing out stickers that read “Zionism is sexy” and “Hamas is ISIS”. This caused huge uproar at the time and people were calling for the boycotting of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things – which is obviously now nearly here. He was also accused of liking a post that apparently mocked those suffering in Gaza.

In response to the backlash at the time, Noah Schnapp posted a video on TikTok addressing all the backlash.

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“I feel like my thoughts and beliefs have been so far misconstrued from anything even close to what I believe, and I wanted to just state from my heart how I feel,” Schnapp said. “I only want peace and safety and security for all innocent people affected by this conflict. I’ve had many open discussions with friends from Palestinian background, and I think those are very important conversations to have and I’ve learned a lot.”

He said what he took away from that “is that we all hope for the same things, that being those innocent people still being held hostage in Gaza to be returned to their families, and equally hope for an end to the loss of innocent life in Palestine — so many of those people being women and children, and it’s horrible to see. I think anyone with any ounce of humanity would hope for an end to the hostility on both sides.

“I stand against any killing of any innocent people and I hope you guys all do, too,” he continued. “And I just hope to one day see those two groups be able to live harmoniously together in that region. And I hope for 2024 online to see people be a little more understanding and compassionate and recognize that we’re all human, regardless of our race, of our ethnicity, of our background, of our country of birth, even our sexuality, of anything. We are all human and we’re all the same and we should all love each other for that and support each other and stand together.”

Brett Gelman’s support for Israel also got a lot of backlash

One of Israel’s most vocal supporters, Brett Gelman – who plays Murray Bauman in Stranger Things – added to the season five being cursed saga after he vocally stuck up for Noah Schnapp as well as the conflict between Israel and Gaza.

Gelman stated: “I saw nothing wrong. He held up a sticker saying ‘Zionism is sexy’… zionism is the belief that Israel should exist, and that’s sexy to me too.”

David Harbour getting a Lily Allen album targeting him

David Harbour was pop culture’s enemy number one and that happened in October – the month before Stranger Things season five came out. Because he’s playing one of the major adult heroes in Stranger Things, obviously he’s on screen a lot and with all the unsavoury accusations levied his way by his ex wife Lily Allen it put a serious bad taste in people’s mouths before the show came out.

He also did minimal press junkets for the show – but did attend the premiere. He’s probably hoping it all just blows over but the album was huge and definitely added to the whole Stranger Things season five is cursed saga with all the controversies.

Argyle vanishing

Argyle was a main character introduced in Stranger Things season four and he was popular with fans. But mysteriously, Argyle is not back with zero information on why. He didn’t die, he didn’t have a big send off – he just vanished out of the show. I haven’t watched the start of season five yet but apparently there’s not even an explanation.

Eduardo Franco, the guy who plays Argyle, is also none the wiser and all he knows about why he isn’t in it is he’s stated he just “didn’t get a call”. Fishy!

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