Gaten Matarazzo on ‘SNL’s ‘Stranger Issues’ shoutout, Dustin and Steve’s huge struggle, and why AI is ‘lame’

Gaten Matarazzo does not fairly consider Saturday Night time Dwell star Jane Wickline’s claims that the Stranger Issues children are “the best risk to humanity proper now.”

Throughout a Dec. 13 Weekend Replace look, Wickline sang a track warning viewers that the Stranger Issues little one actors, now grown-up, can be utilizing their affect to take over the world. However Matarazzo is joyful to guarantee humanity that that’s not the case.

“Even when we did have the capabilities of being the best risk to humanity, I do not assume any of us actually have the gumption to go together with it,” Matarazzo informed Mashable Leisure Reporter Belen Edwards throughout a Say Extra interview. “I do not know if I actually have that in me.”

Nonetheless, Wickline’s track was by no means actually in regards to the Stranger Issues actors. As an alternative, it is a tongue-in-cheek critique of synthetic intelligence, with the comic citing the whole lot the whole lot from AI’s impacts on job markets to its heavy water utilization. And whereas Matarazzo might not agree with Wickline that the Stranger Issues actors are keen to decide to world domination, the AI criticism is one thing he can absolutely get behind.

“It is lame,” Matarazzo stated of AI. “Making a present like Stranger Issues, or making something typically, particularly if you take a look at movie and TV, the entire level is that it is subjective so individuals can have no matter opinion they’ve. However I do not assume that something is artwork until individuals make it, and I do not actually assume there’s a lot to remark there until persons are pulling from their very own expertise or shared expertise.”

AI has undeniably been probably the most polarizing hot-button subjects within the leisure business over the previous few years. Through the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, which impacted manufacturing on Stranger Issues Season 5, AI was a serious matter of concern for each unions. In 2025, it continued to be a speaking level, from the creation of AI “actress” Tilly Norwood to Disney’s $1 billion cope with OpenAI.

For Matarazzo, the acceleration of AI is a worrying one. “The scariest factor, I believe, is that persons are like, ‘OK, nice, we draw a line right here,’ however then two years from now… there is a concern that it will get to a degree the place it’s unrecognizable,” he stated. “I believe that is type of the aim there, that people who find themselves fans of AI artwork are like, ‘is not it going to be nice when you possibly can’t inform the distinction?’ I am like, ‘That scares the shit out of me.'”

The complete interview additionally dives into standout moments from Stranger Issues Season 5, Quantity 2, together with Dustin’s emotional struggle with Steve (Joe Keery) within the Upside Down. The pair have been at odds for the whole season, as Dustin’s grief over Eddie’s (Joseph Quinn) dying causes him to push his associates, particularly Steve, away. That pressure involves a head within the Upside Down’s reproduction of Hawkins lab, when the pair’s argument about Eddie’s dying ends in a fistfight that is filled with telling character moments about Steven and Dustin.

“What I actually do love about that struggle is that, if I bear in mind correctly, he by no means swings at me as soon as. He by no means hits me as soon as,” Matarazzo stated. “Every little thing he does is to get me away from him. He does push me towards a wall and push me away from him, as a result of I am actively making an attempt to harm him.”

Dustin lastly punches Steve within the face, at which level the gloves come off. Steve wrestles Dustin right into a headlock, and after the 2 wind up, spent, on the ground, he walks away.

“That is the place he attracts the road and ends it proper there. It’s extremely clear, like, there is no struggle there. If he needed to, completely, he may knock me into the subsequent room, and that is simply by no means his intention there,” Matarazzo stated. “That is why, whilst a lot as I’ve damage him all year long, he simply all the time retains his composure. And that is actually cool. He says some hurtful issues, for positive, however everyone tends to, and I actually like that that is the way it goes down.”

Watch the total Say Extra episode on Mashable’s YouTube web page to listen to extra from Matarazzo about Dustin and Steve’s eventual reconciliation, in addition to his response to followers’ worries that Dustin will die.

Volumes 1 and a couple of of Stranger Issues Season 5 at the moment are streaming on Netflix. The collection finale premieres Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix and in theaters.