Joseph Quinn: the actor who plays Eddie Munson, one season to become a star
Actors · Joseph Quinn · Eddie Munson
Joseph Quinn only played one season of the show, and he came out of it with the most meteoric career of the whole cast: Eddie Munson, the Hellfire Club president, opened Gladiator II, Fantastic Four and the role of George Harrison to him. Here is his path, before, during and after Hawkins.
The essentials
- Born: January 26, 1994, London
- Role: Eddie Munson, Season 4 (2022)
- Training: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA)
- Since: Gladiator II, A Quiet Place: Day One, Fantastic Four: First Steps
Contents
Joseph Quinn before Hawkins: British television
Joseph Quinn is a London kid, trained at LAMDA, one of the major British drama schools. For eight years, he strings together series roles on English television: Dickensian, Howards End, Catherine the Great with Helen Mirren, a turn on Game of Thrones, the role of Enjolras in a Les Misérables adaptation for the BBC. A solid actor, known to professionals, unknown to the public.
He is cast for Season 4 in 2019, on an audition sent from London; the shoot will not happen until 2021, because of the pandemic. The Duffers are looking for a charismatic metalhead, able to hold a role-playing table and a trailer roof. They find him.
The Hellfire Club T-shirt, Eddie's.
In the shopWomen's Eddie Munson guitar solo T-shirt39,90 €See the product
Eddie Munson: one season, a phenomenon
Eddie is written to die: a one-season character, the outcast the town takes for a satanic killer, who saves everyone and disappears. Joseph Quinn makes something else of him. His Eddie is funny, fragile, immediately loved, and his death, in the last episode, sparked petitions to bring him back and lines of several hours at a convention.
The Master of Puppets solo scene, on the trailer roof in the Upside Down, is played in large part by him: Joseph Quinn has played guitar since childhood and learned the song for the shoot. Metallica later invited him backstage to play the riff with the band.
The patch vestEddie's denim vest, covered in metal-band patches, was put together by the show's costume designer from real period patches.
After Eddie: cinema, right away
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | A Quiet Place: Day One | Eric, the survivor who crosses New York |
| 2024 | Gladiator II | Emperor Geta, alongside Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington |
| 2025 | The Fantastic Four: First Steps | Johnny Storm, the Human Torch |
| 2025 | Warfare | A Navy SEAL, in the Alex Garland film |
| In production | Sam Mendes's Beatles films | George Harrison |
In three years, the actor goes from English television to the biggest Hollywood budgets. The choice of Gladiator II, in which he plays a decadent Roman emperor opposite Pedro Pascal, is that of an actor who refuses to be locked in the role of the nice outcast. That of Johnny Storm, at Marvel, places him at the heart of a franchise for years.
And season 5?
Eddie is dead, and the show did not bring Joseph Quinn back in season 5, despite the rumors and the theories about a “Kas,” a Dungeons & Dragons vampire Eddie would have become. The Duffers ruled: the dead stay dead. The character is mentioned there, by Dustin especially, and his T-shirt, his uncle Wayne, and his guitar run through the last season as relics.
For the actor, it is a break: a single season, a perfect character, and a whole career ahead of him.
What you know less about him
Joseph Quinn grew up in south London. His father runs the screen-acting department at LAMDA, the school where he himself studied until 2015. He holds British and Irish citizenship. Before Eddie, he already had a theater career, at the National Theatre among other places, and a best-actor prize at the Manchester Theatre Awards in 2017 for the play Wish List. His first film, Overlord, dates from 2018.
Season 4 earned him a Saturn Award nomination and the breakthrough prize at the MTV Movie & TV Awards in 2023. In the wake of it, he became the face of a fragrance, appeared on Variety's list of ten actors to watch and among British GQ's men of the year.
The Eddie figure, guitar in hand.
In the shopLego Eddie Munson mini figure14,90 €See the product
Eddie in 1987: dead, but everywhere
Eddie does not appear in the last season, and his presence there is nonetheless constant. Dustin still wears the Hellfire Club T-shirt and is bullied for it from the first episode; Eddie's grave is stained with a snake's blood, and Dustin is attacked there. The falling-out between Steve and Dustin, in episode 5, explodes because Steve talks lightly about Eddie's sacrifice; it is repaired when Dustin admits he cannot “lose another friend.”
In the epilogue, in spring 1989, Dustin, valedictorian, pays tribute to Eddie in his graduation speech in front of the whole high school: the outcast the town took for a satanic killer is finally named for what he was. Joseph Quinn did not need to be there for the show to give him his conclusion.
What follows: the Human Torch and the Beatles
The calendar of the years ahead is already written. After The Fantastic Four: First Steps in 2025, he picks Johnny Storm up again in Avengers: Doomsday, planned for 2026, then Avengers: Secret Wars, announced for 2027. In parallel, he is shooting George Harrison in the four films Sam Mendes is dedicating to the Beatles, one per member of the band.
For an actor who only played one season of the show, it is a trajectory without equivalent in the cast. It comes down to a character, Eddie, and a scene, the solo on the trailer roof, which made him, in nine episodes, one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood.
Eddie and the satanic panic: what the character tells
Eddie is not only a likable character: he embodies a real moment in American history. In the 80s, parents, pastors, and journalists accused Dungeons & Dragons of pushing teenagers toward occultism, and outcasts in metal T-shirts were treated as suspects. When Jason Carver convinces the town that the Hellfire Club is a cult, the show replays that “satanic panic” with a rare historical precision.
Joseph Quinn plays Eddie as the ideal victim of that fear: long hair, patch jackets, a trailer and a locker, and a heart that has nothing to do with the image. His death, as a hero the town will keep taking for a killer, is the show's bitterest comment on what Hawkins does to people who do not look like it.
The guitar keychain, lighter than the real one.
In the shopEddie Munson metal sweater77,90 €See the product
TakeawayJoseph Quinn was born in London in 1994 and trained at LAMDA. He plays Eddie Munson in Season 4 only, and the character dies in the last episode. He actually plays a large part of the Master of Puppets solo. Since then he has shot Gladiator II, A Quiet Place: Day One, The Fantastic 4 and plays George Harrison in Sam Mendes's Beatles films.
Frequently asked questions
Who plays Eddie Munson?
Joseph Quinn, British actor born in 1994 in London, trained at LAMDA, in Season 4 of the show.
Does Joseph Quinn come back in Season 5?
No. Eddie dies at the end of season 4 and the creators did not bring the character back, despite the "Kas" theory.
In which films does Joseph Quinn act?
A Quiet Place: Day One, Gladiator II (Geta), The Fantastic 4: First Steps (Johnny Storm), Warfare, and Sam Mendes's Beatles films, where he plays George Harrison.
Does Joseph Quinn really play guitar?
Yes. He learned Master of Puppets for the show and plays a large part of the song on screen.
What award did Joseph Quinn receive for Eddie?
The breakthrough award at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards, and a Saturn Awards nomination for Season 4.
Is Joseph Quinn going to be in the Avengers?
Yes, he takes back Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in Avengers: Doomsday, slated for 2026, then Avengers: Secret Wars, announced for 2027.