Finn Wolfhard is primarily known for his role as Mike Wheeler on Stranger Things, but with the popular Netflix show firmly behind him, he is now focused on his music career. But that doesn’t mean he is not performing and picking up smaller jobs that let him do fun, unexpected things like act out Lego Pokémon battle scenarios with Terry Crews. In promotion of the commercial and the new line of Lego Pokémon, we spoke with Wolfhard about his history with video games, Pokémon, Lego, and learned how video game music influences his own music.
Game Informer: What’s your history with Pokémon? Where’d you start?
Finn Wolfhard: The first game I played was Pokémon Pearl, and I loved that game. And my brother and I – my brother maybe even more so than me is a huge Pokémon fan. I’m a huge fan, as well. He, I think, has put a little more hours into the games, but I’ve definitely had my fair share of Pokémon and playing through FireRed. Last year, me and a few of the cast, actually, of Stranger Things were playing through FireRed on set to kind of pass the time, and that was really fun.
Were you trading Pokémon on set? Did you get that intense with it?
We didn’t. We weren’t trading, but we were comparing how each other’s journey was going.
Stranger Things, Season 5
Seen just out of frame, multiple copies of Pokémon FireRed (allegedly)
Pearl was your first. Who was your starter?
I don’t fully remember, actually, who it was. I remember playing Machamp a lot from that game. That was like my… that was obviously not my starter. But my memory is that I was playing the most when I was Machamp. I’m pretty sure it was Machamp. But yeah, that was definitely, I think grade two or three or something playing that game. From what I remember, it was Pearl. What was the other one that came out that year? It was Diamond?
Yeah, Diamond and Pearl were the two for DS.
Right. It was Diamond and Pearl. Do you remember what the starters were on both of those?
Readers will definitely want to know who your starter was. It was Piplup the penguin, Chimchar the flame monkey, and Turtwig the turtle.
It was Turtwig.
Good choice.
Yeah, and then my brother was playing Diamond at the time, so we both got best of both worlds.
Who was your FireRed starter? That one maybe you remember because you played it more recently.
Yeah, that one was Venusaur. [editor’s note: Bulbasaur] I love a grass Pokémon, for sure.
How about Lego? What’s your Lego connection?
Lego is a huge part of my childhood, and obviously I grew up with it just being scattered around our house. I think for years, my parents found Lego everywhere. But I remember we had a lot of Star Wars Lego. We had little Tie Fighters, and I remember having a Darth Maul. A little Darth Maul figure that we’d play with all the time. So we were definitely a Lego family.
I imagine this offer comes through, an ad/short film for Lego and Pokémon and it’s a pretty easy yes?
Yeah, I was kind of like, “Oh, these are two awesome things from my childhood. I have to do this.”
And what is it, exactly?
It’s […] keeping it maybe a little vague, but from what’s already come out for the teasers and stuff, I’m battling Terry Crews and I’m kind of like an undefeated Pokémon trainer, a Lego Pokémon trainer, who now has a new fighter or a new challenger.
Was that an easy role for you to play? Are you good at playing the Pokémon games?
Yeah, I’m pretty good at Pokémon. I think this was fun because this ad, the short film kind of takes inspiration from – because it’s, you know, it’s not a video game. It’s tactile. It’s the figures and actually using the toy, so a lot of it was actually pretty physical. We actually had to do some choreography for it, and it was a little bit inspired by kung-fu films. Pretty fun stuff.
This is a loaded question, so I won’t ask for a singular choice, but can you tell me just some of your favorite Pokémon?
Ooh, Mewtwo is a huge one for me, just because it’s in my head – that design? That character design is so iconic. Ivysaur. I love Ivysaur. I love Pichu. I remember when I was little, I just thought Pichu was such a cool Pokémon. I’m trying to think of others. Geodude. Love Geodude.
Machamp is a favorite, I assume?
Machamp’s definitely a favorite. I definitely feel like I go between the grass Pokémons and like sometimes into the water Pokémon. But mostly grass type.
What is your general history with video games, even outside of Pokémon? What are some of your favorite games? What got you into video games?
The first games I remember seeing someone play was – and also the first games that I actually did play – a lot of it was Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy X was, I remember, one of the first games I played. I remember Jak II, like Jak & Daxter 2, was a big one. All those kind of early Naughty Dog games were definitely around in my house, and I played a lot.
Wolfhard with a Charizard, which is notably not his starter
What was it about Jak II you liked so much?
The hoverboard. The hoverboard was like… I spent a lot of time doing that. And honestly, that game is really hard. And so whenever it was too hard, that’s when my brother would kick in. And whenever there was anything that had to do with racing or you know any of the hoverboard stuff, that’s when I would come in, and so I love that.
And then I was also at a really young age collecting. I was really into collecting old consoles, so when I was like nine, I went with my dad and we found an NES. And so I played a lot of Super Mario Bros. 3, and was super into just collecting cartridges and Nintendo Power [magazines]. My uncle got me a Super Nintendo for Christmas and played Street Fighter II on that. So definitely, a lot of the older consoles, I was super into.
Is that still what you enjoy about video games? Or do you play modern video games as well?
I definitely play modern video games. Whenever I get the chance to play, you know, GameCube though? Or like anything on PS2? That’s my favorite. But nowadays, what I’ve been playing recently that has been just like “friendslop,” I think they call it.
What are you playing in the friendslop zone?
I definitely had a moment with Meccha Chameleon. That was super fun. This is not friendslop, but the thing I’ve been putting the most time into recently is they re-released Black Ops II onto PS5. I was big into Call of Duty, like when it was like Black Ops II specifically, and I had a clan. I was a sniper. Like I would go out and try to get Quad Feeds and 5ons [laughs]. So that’s been really fun, getting back into Call of Duty.
You are basically like a touring musician these days. Are you playing games on the road?
Yeah, we were literally on the bus last week. Me and my band play Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies together, which was really fun.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012)
I was looking through some of the lyrics for your new album, and I see movie references. Boogie Nights, you have jokes about Avatar 3, and George Clooney, but I didn’t see any video game references. Do video games or video game music even serve as an inspiration for you in any way?
Oh yeah, for sure. I definitely love video game music, and some of the melodies definitely inspire me. Like Super Mario Galaxy? That’s like one of the best soundtracks of any game. All the Final Fantasy scores are unbelievable. Any Final Fantasy score, that’s like my favorite. But yeah, no video game references on this record. Maybe next. I definitely like to wear my favorite weird little pop culture video game references.
You know what game I was playing recently, too? Crazy Taxi. That was so fun.
There’s a new one on the way, actually.
Yeah, they’re making a new one. I’m stoked about that.
There’s a game called Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?! that’s anime and Crazy Taxi-inspired, where you’re trying to hit people with a truck to send them to a fantasy universe. It’s very strange and funny. If you like Crazy Taxi.
It sounds like, in terms of like video game music inspiration, it’s more the musicality as opposed to like influencing like your lyrics.
For sure. I definitely get inspired by the score from movies, as well as score from video games. Any time I get to have any kind of string arrangement, or string anything, I go back and I’ll listen to the greats, like Chrono Trigger. I guess Chrono Trigger doesn’t really have… I guess it has some strings, but you know – I’ll go back and listen.
It’s fun to hear you talk about games like Chrono Trigger. You’re younger than me, but it’s cool that those games have persisted and you found them. I love Chrono Trigger and the soundtrack, of course.
That soundtrack’s amazing. Also, EarthBound. That music is also unbelievable. There’s so much from older Japanese games. I feel like all those composers are just brilliant.
Is that something you were paying attention to even when you were young? When you first picked a guitar, were those tunes on your mind?
I never learned any of them because they were always so complicated. I would have friends, like nerdier friends growing up, that knew piano or something, and they would be able to play something on piano because they were classically trained, and I just… I wouldn’t even know where to start.
