Stranger Things Season 3 Casts Cary Elwes & Jake Busey

Screen Rant

By Sandy Schaefer

Published Apr 18, 2018

Netflix's Stranger Things season 3 is adding Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) and Jake Busey (The Predator) to its ensemble cast.

Netflix has confirmed that Cary Elwes and Jake Busey are joining the cast of Stranger Things for season 3. Created by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, Stranger Things season 1 quietly premiered on Netflix in the summer of 2016, before become a massive hit for the streaming service. The show has since become famous for drawing inspiration from the sci-fi and/or horror movies of the 1980s and '90s for its own '80s-set story about the weird happenings in the small fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. Season 2 was similarly successful when it premiered last October, and production on Stranger Things season 3 is expected to begin within a month.

In addition to its homages to '80s and '90s pop culture, Stranger Things is also well known by now for casting iconic actors from those decades. Winona Ryder plays one of the main characters on the series, while actors such as Matthew Modine, Sean Astin, and Paul Reiser have all played recurring roles on the series by now. Stranger Things is now adding two other actors with strong ties to entertainment from those decades to its ensemble for season 3.

Speaking at the See What's Next event in Rome (via Deadline), Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos announced that Elwes and Busey will be joining the Stranger Things cast for the show's third season. Elwes will be playing Mayor Kline on the series, while Busey will be portraying a character known as Bruce. Sarandos didn't expand upon their roles beyond that, though it stands to reason that Kline will be the current mayor of Hawkins when season 3 picks up.

Elwes is of course most famous for playing the heroic Westley in Rob Reiner's whimsical fairy tale adventure The Princess Bride from 1987. His legacy also extends well into the '90s, with noteworthy roles in films varying from natural disaster thriller Twister to parody comedies Hot Shots! and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Busey, by comparison, got his start in the '90s with roles in cult movies such as The Frighteners and Starship Troopers, but his father Gary Busey is arguably associated more with pop culture of the '80s and '90s. Jake is even playing the son of his father's Predator 2 character in Shane Black's upcoming sequel/reboot, The Predator.

With a variety of roles under his belt by now, Jake Busey's Stranger Things character Bruce could just as easily be a friend to the show's heroes as he could be an antagonist in season 3. Similarly, the odds are equally in favor of Mayor Kline being a crooked politician (one who knows all about the government's experiments in Hawkins) as they are in favor of him being a respectable fellow, based on Elwes' previous roles. As with all things related to Stranger Things, unfurling the mystery around both characters should be part of the fun while watching season 3.