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

Gaten Matarazzo does not fairly imagine Saturday Evening Reside star Jane Wickline’s claims that the Stranger Issues children are “the best menace to humanity proper now.”

Throughout a Dec. 13 Weekend Replace look, Wickline sang a tune 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 pleased to guarantee humanity that that’s not the case.

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

Nonetheless, Wickline’s tune was by no means actually in regards to the Stranger Issues actors. As a substitute, 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 prepared 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 have 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 suppose that something is artwork except individuals make it, and I do not actually suppose there’s a lot to remark there except individuals are pulling from their very own expertise or shared expertise.”

AI has undeniably been one of the vital polarizing hot-button matters within the leisure trade over the previous few years. Throughout 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 take care of OpenAI.

For Matarazzo, the acceleration of AI is a worrying one. “The scariest factor, I believe, is that individuals are like, ‘OK, nice, we draw a line right here,’ however then two years from now… there is a worry that it will get to a degree the place it’s unrecognizable,” he stated. “I believe that is sort of the aim there, that people who find themselves fanatics of AI artwork are like, ‘is not it going to be nice when you may’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 combat with Steve (Joe Keery) within the Upside Down. The pair have been at odds for the complete season, as Dustin’s grief over Eddie’s (Joseph Quinn) demise causes him to push his mates, particularly Steve, away. That stress involves a head within the Upside Down’s duplicate of Hawkins lab, when the pair’s argument about Eddie’s demise ends in a fistfight that is filled with telling character moments about Steven and Dustin.

“What I actually do love about that combat is that, if I keep in mind correctly, he by no means swings at me as soon as. He by no means hits me as soon as,” Matarazzo stated. “All the pieces 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 is very clear, like, there is not any combat there. If he wished 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, at the same time as a lot as I’ve harm 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 complete 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 pair 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.