Stranger Things season five may have a New Zealand star - Spy

12-year-old actor Nell Fisher rumoured to have landed a role in Netflix’s hit horror Stranger Things, which is set to return for its fifth season.

This week, the trailer of New Zealand family adventure comedy, Bookworm went live and there is a huge buzz around its young star Nell Fisher, and not just from snippets of her starring role in the movie.

Speculation is running hot the 12-year-old breakout talent has a role in the fifth season of mega-hit Netflix supernatural series Stranger Things.

In Bookworm, the feature film directed by Ant Timpson, Fisher stars alongside Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood, and she matches Wood’s screen presence in spades in the just over two minute trailer.

Wood and Fisher filmed Bookworm last year in the picturesque outdoors of Canterbury.

In the film, Wood plays washed-up American magician father, Strawn Wise who comes to New Zealand to look after his estranged daughter Mildred, played by Fisher.

Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn turns Mildred’s life upside down and takes her camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding – a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.

Timpson, who launched the annual 48HOURS Film contest and has produced numerous independent films, worked with Wood on his directorial debut Come to Daddy in 2018.

Over the last few months Fisher has had heavy online and social media speculation that she was joining the Stranger Things cast.

Stranger Things is one of Netflix's most successful shows with four seasons released so far.

Fisher’s New Zealand representative, Gail Cowan Management, had no comment on the theories.

Rising star Fisher has previously starred in Zombie horror Evil Dead Rise, post-pandemic thriller Northspur in 2022 and last year in the Netflix interactive rom-com Choose Love.

All three movies were filmed in New Zealand.

Local television audiences may remember Fisher from TVNZ’s My Life is Murder.

For two episodes she guest starred as Olive, the niece of Lucy Lawless’ character Alexa Crowe, playing the daughter of Crowe’s brother Will (Martin Henderson).

The Stranger Things online fanverse is a beast of a machine.

There have been theories that in series five there may be references to Evil Dead Rise.

On TikTok, Fisher has numerous users theorising on who her character might be on the show.

A popular online theory is that Stranger Things has cast Fisher in the role of Holly Wheeler, the younger sister of major characters Nancy and Mike.

This week the Stranger Things Spoilers’ accounts on Instagram and X, with followers of over 200,000 between both, have posted pictures of what does indeed look like Fisher.

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A post shared by Stranger Things Spoilers (@sthingsspoilers)

“First look at Nell Fisher on the set of #StrangerThings5!” they both posted.

After delayed filming, the fifth season of Stranger Things reportedly started production in the United States in January, with many months of filming to go.

Bookworm hits theatres in New Zealand on August 8.