Here's Why You Totally Recognize The New Stoner Character In Stranger Things 4
Jonathan's smoking buddy has been in a lot of teen comedies.
Every season, Stranger Things adds a few new members to the gang. Season 2 added Max and Murray; Season 3 brought in Robin and Erica. Season 4 introduces several new faces across the board, but the two most notable are Eddie and Argyle. The latter fills a thus far absent high school stereotype on Stranger Things: the stoner. But who plays Argyle in Stranger Things 4, and why does he look so familiar?
Warning: Spoilers for Stranger Things 4 follow. Argyle — played by Eduardo Franco — is part of the newly formed California division of the Stranger Things cast. The Byers fam (plus Eleven) left Hawkins for good at the end of Season 3. But they didn’t head for nearby Illinois, possibly due to the Duffer Brothers’ fear of repeating the Chicago error of Season 2. Instead, Dr. Owens helped them relocate to a small town in California.
Eleven and Will don’t fit in here, but Jonathan was primed for the laidback hippie vibe of the state. He quickly fell in with the stoner crowd and buddied up with Argyle, who drives the pizza delivery van. The two became the Cheech and Chong of the crew, especially once they’re on the road looking to find Eleven.
Argyle feels like a familiar character because there’s one of him in almost every high school-set series: the comic relief stoner dude. But Franco brings an extra familiarity to the stereotype because he’s played it before. He co-starred with Vince Vaughn in the Hulu stoner comedy The Binge; he was also part of the ensemble of the Netflix comedy American Vandal.
Franco first got noticed in the Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything, in which he appeared on and off over three seasons as Stu. But audiences probably remember him best from the Independent Spirit Award winner Booksmart, in which he appeared as Theo, the one that’s infatuated with teacher Miss Fine, and has been held back a couple of grades so he’s really too old to be in high school.
Unlike some of the high schoolers introduced this season of Stranger Things, Argyle has thus far survived hitching his pizza van to the former Hawkins residents. (No small feat considering the shootout at the Byers’ new home.) Whether or not he’s part of the gang by Season 5 depends on his fate once the group finally arrives back in Hawkins.
Stranger Things Seasons through 3 and Season 4, Vol. 1 are streaming on Netflix. Season 4, Vol. 2, arrives July 1, 2022.
