Joe Keery Wanted to Team Up with Gaten Matarazzo After Thinking He Was ‘So Good’ in Stranger Things Season 1

Joe Keery admired Gaten Matarazzo before their characters were paired together in Stranger Things. 

The actor, 33, shared at PaleyLive’s Stranger Things panel on Dec. 18 at the Paley Museum in New York City that he wanted to work with the Matarazzo, 23, after the first season of the Netflix hit.  “Man, he’s so good. I’d love to do some stuff with him,” Keery recalled thinking after seeing his costar’s performance in the debut season.

As for the connection between their characters, Steve Harrington and Dustin Henderson, Keery said, “I feel like it showed me who my character actually really was. Before that, I didn’t really fully understand it. To have that discovery midway through playing a character that you thought you understood… what a cool gift.”

“No one’s as quick as Gaten,” Keery continued of his costar. “This guy doesn’t need any extra takes. He’s so, so pro.”

Steve (Keery) and Dustin (Matarazzo) become unlikely friends in season 2, which sees the older Hawkins, Ind., resident coaching the younger one before his school’s Snowball Dance. The next season follows the two as they embark on a side quest from the core group at the Starcourt Mall.

Their tight friendship continues to grow throughout the series until the first part of season 5. The two have a more tense relationship in the episodes, as Dustin shuts Steven out while dealing with his own personal problems.

The trailer for the second volume of the final season teases reconciliation between the two, as Steve is shown saying their heartbreaking promise from season 3, “You die, I die,” to Dustin.

Matarazzo also opened up about working with Keery, saying, “Something I’ve valued so much about the show in general, and I think particularly about being able to work with Joe so much, is that it’s very rare when working as an actor that you get to work on something so long, where momentum isn’t really even in the question at all.”

“You never really have enough time to develop a rapport or a flow to how you interact with a person in whatever you’re doing, because when you’re working in film, usually it’s at most a two to three month process,” he explained. “We had not only years on the show, but consistent seasons working together.”

“Whenever I was working with Joe, it was always very clear and very soothing,” Matarazzo said of Keery.

Earlier in the conversation, Keery noted that Steve and Dustin have “such a strong bond together” that’s tested in the current season. “It was new territory for both of us,” he said, adding that creators Matt and Ross Duffer “hit us a really cool ground ball that was different than anything that we had done.”

“We got to flex our comedic chops in other seasons, but this was something a little bit different,” Keery said, referring to the changed dynamic between the two characters. “To play through the whole season with it was really interesting. I also really enjoyed just the pressure cooker that [the Duffer Brothers] have created for this season.”

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Also at the panel, moderated by Perri Nemiroff, were the Duffer Brothers and stars Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Maya Hawke and Jamie Campbell Bower.

Prior to the discussion was a screening of the fourth episode of the new season, “Chapter Four: Sorcerer.” Actors Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour were originally slated to attend the event, but later pulled out.

Addressing their absence, Nemiroff said, “Before we begin our conversation today, we just want to acknowledge that, clearly, the full ensemble could not be here tonight.” 

Volume 1 of Stranger Things season 5 is now streaming on Netflix. Volume 2 drops Dec. 25, followed by the finale on Dec. 31, at 8 p.m. ET.