One 'Stranger Things' Cameo Was Especially Challenging to Film

Stranger Things season 4 spoilers follow.

Despite his death at the end of last season, Stranger Things managed to bring in a surprise cameo for Dacre Montgomery's Billy Hargrove in season 4.

However, it turns out that filming his brief sequence was much more challenging than it appeared, with director Shawn Levy describing it as "one of the biggest Rubik's Cube challenges" of his career.

While the scene in question seems simple enough – Billy appears to Max (Sadie Sink) as a vision concocted by Vecna, taunting her as the evil being takes control of her – Levy has revealed that COVID-19 restrictions at the time made Montgomery's appearance very difficult to film.

Related: Stranger Things season 4 still needs to answer this big question

"Dacre is a good friend and someone I have been a massive fan of since the first line of his Billy self-taped audition. When I read that I got to bring back Billy, I was over the moon," he told Entertainment Weekly.

"But here's what's crazy: Because COVID scuttled all of our production plans in the midst of an already massively ambitious season, Dacre could not leave Australia to film his scene.

"It was rescheduled again and again and again, and there were lockdowns and protocol updates and more lockdowns and more stringent border restrictions," he added.

"So with the clock running down, we had no choice but to have me direct over Zoom [with Montgomery] in Australia on a soundstage, while I had already shot the scene in a cemetery with Sadie Sink a year earlier."

Levy went on to reveal that Montgomery's remotely filmed performance was later digitally inserted into the scene.

"That sequence in episode 4 was one of the biggest Rubik's Cube challenges of my directing career, figuring out how to put Billy in that cemetery with Max, without the ability to put Dacre in the same country as Sadie," the director added.

Related: Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn says season 4 part two will be the show's craziest

Montgomery himself addressed filming the scene in his own Instagram post, sharing a series of behind-the-scenes pictures from Australia.

"Feeling extremely fortunate to have been able to shoot these scenes during the pandemic in my hometown, Perth (in Australia)," he said. "What an absolute blessing to work with such an incredible local crew and @slevydirect directing on Zoom! @strangerthingstv."

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