An old-school photo of a heavy metal icon proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle for Stranger Things fans who were curious about Eddie Munson’s passion for Metallica.
Redditor Newez dug deep into the archives and posted a snapshot of the band’s lead guitarist as a young man with the caption, “Young Kirk Hammett, Metallica. The resemblence is uncanny…”
Fans marveled at the likeness between Munson (Joseph Quinn) and the Metallica axeman in his early days. Noivern87 briefly thought they were seeing double:
Another fan called Knoxxius wondered if Quinn was deliberately cast because of his likeness to Hammett.
Redditor TerranRepublic thought it made sense to cast an actor who looked a lot like Hammett, considering the epic scene when Eddie plays the Metallica classic Master of Puppets.
However, some Redditors like Joey Jabroni thought Munson took after another Eddie.
A fan called thekrock23 pointed out that Eddie Munson’s look was in fact inspired by Eddie Van Halen.
And this is accurate, as the show’s stylist Sarah Hindsgaul did indeed confirm this in an interview in Allure.
[Eddie’s hair] is based on Eddie Van Halen. We had five fittings for Joe. I was nervous about actually cutting it short on top.”
A new generation of fans is connecting with some of the most iconic bands of the ’80s through Stranger Things. Metallica was thrilled to work with the production team, and the collaboration has since seen Master of Puppets reenter the charts.
Stranger Things is currently streaming on Netflix.