The Duffer Brothers apologize for forgetting Will’s birthday in Stranger Things season 4

Well, it looks like those fan theories are correct. Ross and Matt Duffer did forget Will Byers‘ birthday in Stranger Things season 4 volume 1. Sorry Will. During a recent interview, the Duffer Brothers owned up to their mistake.

If you were paying attention during season 4, episode 2, the scene where Mike, Will and Eleven go to Rink-O-Mania, you might have noticed a sequence where a rolling camera captures the trio skating. In the corner of the tape, it says the date is March 22, which the Stranger Things universe has already established as Will’s date of birth.

But no one seems to notice that it was Will’s special day, not even his mom or his brother! It would explain why Will was acting so sullen that episode. Except the mistake was on the writer’s part, not the characters. It just slipped their minds!

Did Stranger Things season 4 forget Will’s birthday?

To Ross and Matt’s credit, they did admit to the mistake while talking to Variety. The next thing they’ll have to do is decide whether to address that moving forward, or to just ret-con Will’s birthday and change it so it’s not as depressing.

The Duffer Brothers joked that people like Stephen King and George R.R. Martin have people that work for them who check on these kinds of continuity consistencies to ensure mistakes like that don’t happen, whereas Matt and Ross rely on their memories.

They said they would “George Lucas” the situation and move Will’s birthday to May 22, since it wouldn’t be too hard to readjust when Joyce says “March” to “May.”

Here’s the exchange in full:

"MD: You know how George R.R. Martin has somebody — I mean, his story is more vast — and Stephen King has someone who just keeps track of this stuff? We need that. We don’t have that. So Ross and I, and my memory’s not great, but we love Will, and I don’t want people to think we don’t love Will because we forgot — we do! But now we mentioned Dustin’s birthday this season, so we’re being very careful for people not to forget, in case the timelines…RD: Here’s what I think. I think what we’re going to do is we’ll go and George Lucas it.MD: We’re thinking his new birthday, Jenny, is going to be May 22nd, because “May” can fit in Winona’s mouth [in the Season 2 scene where Joyce says the date of Will’s birthday]. So that would be us George Lucas-ing the situation.RD: Of course that would mean his mom forgot his birthday! It’s too mean. It was obviously a mistake, and we’re sorry. We apologize to the fans.MD: And especially to Will! It’s unfair."

Sadie Sink revealed a Stranger Things season 4 production error

Will’s birthday isn’t the only mistake made in the new season. Fans noticed an inconsistency in the initial season 4 trailer that showed two different headstones for Billy Hargrove in the cemetery. In one shot, the headstone read “Billy Hargrove,” while in another it said “William Hargove.”

Sadie slyly revealed that it was just a production error during a recent Wired Autocomplete interview.

Let’s just hope we don’t catch a stray coffee cup somewhere it shouldn’t be in volume 2…