Joyce Byers

Lore & Background

Winona Ryder joined the cast of Stranger Things as Joyce Byers in June 2015. Ryder's sole condition to play the role to The Duffer Brothers was that, if a sequel to the film Beetlejuice (1988) ever materialized due to her and Tim Burton having been discussing such project since 2000, they had to let her take a break to shoot it; the Duffers agreed and ultimately Ryder was able to shoot Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) with no difficulty. Joyce is fashioned after Richard Dreyfuss' character, Roy Neary, in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

She is portrayed to appear insane to other characters as she searches for her missing son Will, whom everyone believes to be dead. In December 2017, it was revealed Ryder would be reprising her role for the third season, after the successes of the first and second seasons. She also received a pay raise in that same season. Ryder continued to play Joyce until the fifth and final season.

Reader's Guide

Joyce Byers is a determined, resourceful, and deeply emotional person, willing to go to great lengths to find her son, even if it means confronting supernatural forces. She works with Jim Hopper, sharing information and sneaking into Hawkins Lab. She uses Christmas lights to communicate with Will. She burns the shadow monster out of Will in season 2. In season 3, she investigates the failing magnets with Hopper, kidnaps Alexei, and destroys the Russian machine. In season 4, she travels to Alaska and Kamchatka to rescue Hopper.