The Stranger: 9 Hidden Details About The Main Characters Everyone Missed In The Netflix Show

The Stranger is Netflix’s latest supremely bingable thriller, focusing on the secrets and lies circulating within a suburban UK community. Based on Harlan Coben’s 2015 novel, the taut mystery that begins with Adam Price’s search for his missing wife unfolds over eight nail-biting episodes, and is full of memorable characters who each have something to hide.

With a highly respected cast including Richard Armitage (The Hobbit Trilogy), Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey), and Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta), the series reveals that appearances can be deceiving. Here are 10 hidden details about the main characters everyone missed in the Netflix Show.

9 THE STRANGER HAS BEEN A HACKER BEFORE

In Harlan Coben’s novel, The Stranger was a man aided by four accomplices, whereas in the Netflix series the character is a bi-racial woman with a getaway driver. The Stranger is a professional blackmailer who is hired by clients to dig up dirt on targets for a big payout. She also considers her work a moralistic crusade.

The Stranger portrayed by Hannah John-Kamen, who some viewers may recognize as the mysterious Ghost super-villain from Ant-Man and The Wasp. Ghost is also a technologically gifted hacker who operates as a mercenary for hire, and also operates by a personal moral code.

8 ED PRICE’S ILLEGITIMATE CHILD WAS FORESHADOWED

It’s no secret early on in the series that Adam Price doesn’t get along with his father, Edward. Edward abandoned the family when Adam was young, leaving him to look after his sick mother. He then began a new life with another woman and had two additional sons.

The Stranger tells Edward that unless he pays a large sum of money, she’s going to reveal that he had an additional illegitimate child. When he approaches Adam at a football game after the encounter, he’s wearing a blue baseball cap, which Adam remarks as being atypical for his father. It’s identical to The Stranger’s cap, who turns out to be his illegitimate child.

7 ADAM PRICE WAS BASED ON RICHARD ARMITAGE

Harlan Coben’s thriller was originally set in the United States, specifically Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. When the setting of the series was transferred to the UK, UK actors were considered for all the roles. Richard Armitage was one of the only principals who didn’t have to audition directly.

When he was selected to play Adam Price, he spent time getting inside the head of the character and writing down biographical information to help it translate better onscreen in an English setting. Pieces of Armitage’s own life worked their way into the script, allowing him to make Adam feel like a real person.

6 MARTIN KILLANE ISN’T THE ONLY COP STEPHEN REA HAS PLAYED

Renowned Northern Irish actor Stephen Rea plays Martin Killane in The Stranger, a retired police officer who left the force to raise his young child as a single father after the mysterious disappearance of his wife. He helps Adam Price on his quest to find his own missing wife.

The performance follows several turns as a member of law enforcement. Most recently in Greta he played Brian Cody, a former cop turned private investigator. In V for Vendetta he played Inspector David Finch, and in FeardotCom he played Detective Mike Reilly.

5 HEIDI WAS JENNIFER SAUNDER’S FIRST DRAMATIC ROLE

In one of acting’s great paradoxes, comedians are sometimes the greatest dramatic actors. Performers like Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, and Sandra Bullock, mostly known for their jocularity in farcical films, have demonstrated time and again that they are just as capable of making audiences cry as they are making them laugh.

Jennifer Saunders, world renowned for playing Edina Monsoon in the British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, was approached to play Heidi Doyle by author Harlan Coben, a major fan of her work. He never thought she’d take the part, but she was delighted to appear in her first dramatic role (which she made a killer impression in).

4 MIKE HAS ALL HIS TEETH

When DC Johanna Griffin and her partner discover the decapitated alpaca (Louis), not only is it missing its head, it also has a mysterious bite mark on its leg. Johanna deduces that due to the orderly elliptical shape of the mark, it must belong to a human, albeit one missing one bicuspid.

Mike is revealed to be the individual who chopped off the animal’s head with a shovel, but keen viewers will notice that he’s not missing any of his teeth. This points to someone else being responsible for gnawing on the alpaca’s leg before it was discovered.

3 ADAM IS TOO OLD TO HAVE KNOWN CHRISSY

Late in the series, it’s revealed that “Chrissy” is Martin Killane’s daughter, whom he raised as a single father after the “disappearance” of her mother. Her mother had an affair with Edward Price, who lived on the same street with his son Adam, making Adam her half-brother.

Viewers might question how exactly Adam could have grown up on the same street as Chrissy without remembering her. He acts genuinely surprised to hear that Martin Killane has an estranged child. However, Adam is in his ’40s, whereas Chrissy is described as being in her mid-twenties, implying he’d have moved away by the time she was born.

2 BOB’S MOTIVE

Eventually it’s revealed that Coach Bob hired The Stranger to delve into Corrine’s personal affairs and reveal her involvement in embezzling funds from the football club. He was unaware she’d been set up by Doug Tripp, and sought only to protect his own reputation.

He was aware that the community regarded him as a desperate, jobless opportunist, who in the very first episode offered players positions on the varsity team if their parents could secure him employment outside of his coaching responsibilities.

1 CORRINE FAKED HER PREGNANCY SO ADAM WOULDN’T LEAVE HER

When The Stranger first approaches Adam at the football club, she informs him his wife faked her pregnancy several years before. She intones that Adam could have left Corrine, but he chose to stay, implying that the couple was having problems.

Later in the series, it’s revealed that Adam was having an affair with a woman that he worked closely with on a case. With this information, viewers can deduce that Corrine felt like Adam was pulling away from her during that time and had a child to prevent him from leaving her.

About The Author

Kayleena Pierce-Bohen
(1343 Articles Published)

Kayleena has been raised on Star Wars and Indiana Jones from the crib. A film buff, she has a Western collection of 250+ titles and counting that she’s particularly proud of. When she isn’t writing for ScreenRant, CBR, or The Gamer, she’s working on her fiction novel, lifting weights, going to synthwave concerts, or cosplaying. With degrees in anthropology and archaeology, she plans to continue pretending to be Lara Croft as long as she can.

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