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Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo Play Truth or Dab | Hot Ones

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Two “Stranger Things” kids, one bottle of Pepper X, and a whole lot of Season 3 secrets on the line.

Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo sat down across from Sean Evans for a round of “Truth or Dab,” the First We Feast spinoff that swaps out the usual ten-wing hot sauce gauntlet for a simpler, meaner bargain: answer the question honestly, or eat a wing coated in the show’s scorching signature sauce, “The Last Dab,” built around the superhot extract Pepper X. Released as Netflix geared up for the July 4 launch of “Stranger Things” Season 3, the episode put McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair) and Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) in the position of protecting either their pride or their taste buds.

Evans, never one to lob softballs, spent the segment pushing the two young co-stars on set secrets, personal quirks, and pop-culture bragging rights, all while the clock ticked on how long either of them could dodge the sauce.

• McLaughlin and Matarazzo appear together on “Truth or Dab” ahead of the Season 3 premiere of “Stranger Things,” fielding questions from host Sean Evans.
• The format forces a binary choice on every question: answer truthfully or eat a wing doused in “The Last Dab,” the franchise’s Pepper X-based sauce.
• Evans’s line of questioning covers Season 3 secrets, the pair’s off-camera dynamic, and Matarazzo’s depth of “Star Wars” trivia knowledge.

The Format’s Simple Cruelty

“Truth or Dab” strips away the slow burn of the standard Hot Ones gauntlet and replaces it with an on-the-spot dilemma. There’s no working up to the heat over ten wings — it’s one question, one choice, right away. That structure is what makes the segment such an effective vehicle for teenage co-stars who’ve spent three seasons being coached to keep plot details close to the chest.

McLaughlin and Matarazzo, both still teenagers at the time of filming, had to weigh each Evans question in real time: is this worth the burn? The premise plays directly against the instinct every “Stranger Things” cast member has been drilled on since Season 1 — protect the spoilers at all costs — by making silence come with a literal, physical price.

Sean Evans Presses on Season 3

Evans used his signature blend of specific, needling questions to try to pry loose anything resembling a Season 3 tease, mixing plot-adjacent prompts with more personal ones about what it’s actually like on the “Stranger Things” set. The tactic is the same one that’s turned plenty of Hot Ones guests into visibly sweating, hedging messes — a dynamic longtime viewers of the Hot Ones franchise have watched play out with far more seasoned interview subjects than a couple of teenage actors.

Answer truthfully, or eat the wing doused in The Last Dab — no in-between, no working up to it.

The lack of a middle ground is the point. Unlike a normal press-junket interview where a publicist can step in and redirect, “Truth or Dab” leaves McLaughlin and Matarazzo with exactly two options every single time Evans opens his mouth.

Matarazzo’s Star Wars Card

One of the segment’s lighter stretches turns into trivia territory, with Evans testing just how deep Matarazzo’s “Star Wars” knowledge actually runs. It’s a fitting subject for a franchise-adjacent kid actor — Matarazzo’s Dustin Henderson has spent multiple “Stranger Things” seasons namechecking sci-fi lore on camera, and the trivia exchange gives him a chance to show that fluency isn’t just a scripted bit for his character. Fans tracking Disney’s ongoing Star Wars-branded expansion projects around the same period would’ve recognized the trivia as very much of-the-moment.

McLaughlin, for his part, gets pulled into questions that lean more toward the personal dynamics between the two actors and their castmates, with Evans probing for the kind of behind-the-scenes color that doesn’t usually make it into a standard talk-show hit.

Weighing Pride Against Pepper X

By the time the questions escalate, both actors are visibly calculating the cost of honesty. The Last Dab’s Pepper X heat isn’t a gimmick — it’s the same sauce that’s broken far older, more hardened Hot Ones guests, and watching two teenage “Stranger Things” stars decide, question by question, whether a secret is worth the burn is exactly the tension the format is built to generate.

The episode landed right as Netflix’s promotional machine for Season 3 was hitting full speed, giving McLaughlin and Matarazzo one more outlet to hype the July premiere without technically confirming anything Evans was fishing for — assuming, of course, they didn’t crack under the sauce first.