Millie Bobby Brown Is Netflix’s Original Homegrown Superstar — And ‘Damsel’ Is The First True Test Of Her Star Power

With Hollywood’s best and brightest stars gathering in Los Angeles this weekend to celebrate the 2024 Oscars, Netflix will have all of its promotional horsepower trained on building awareness for one big movie. And no, it’s not Bradley Cooper’s Maestro.

Damsel, a new fantasy film coming to Netflix tomorrow, is a star vehicle built entirely around the wattage that Millie Bobby Brown generates. The now 20-year-old actress was first thrust into the spotlight at age 12, when her shaved head and craving for Eggos put her front and center during the first season of Stranger Things. Now, four seasons, two Netflix movies, and two Emmy nominations later — not to mention 63 million Instagram followers — Brown has officially hit the big time: She gets to produce and star in a movie that hinges solely on her star power. And it all happened on Netflix.

Brown is Netflix’s first homegrown superstar—someone who started at, and has thrived on, the streaming service. After a few small guest roles on network shows like NCIS and Grey’s Anatomy, the British tween was cast as a laconic, super-powered, lab-grown child in the main cast of 2016’s Stranger Things. Netflix’s wildly popular original show—indeed, one of the streamer’s most successful originals of all time—has since become a cultural juggernaut, and all of the once-young cast will leave the show far more famous than when they were first cast. Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike, has done particularly well for himself, landing roles in blockbuster ensembles like It and Ghostbusters — but not one of her cast members has fared quite so well as Brown.

Brown’s performance as Eleven has earned her two Emmy nominations and one Screen Actors Guild Award so far, and she still has one more season to go. (The fifth and final season is currently filming, and is expected to release in 2025.) By the time she was 13, “Millie Bobby Brown” was already a household name. By 14, she was the youngest person ever included on Time‘s list of 100 most influential people in the world. By 15, she made her feature film debut; a supporting role in 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. And by 16, she was the producer and star of her own Netflix film series: Enola Holmes.

Based on the young adult books series of the same name by Nancy Springer, 2020’s Enola Holmes cast Brown as the 16-year-old younger sister of the world-famous detective, Sherlock Holmes (played by Witcher star Henry Cavill). It’s a delightful, adventurous romp, thanks in large part to Brown’s charming chemistry both with her on-screen brother and with her love interest, played by Louis Partridge. The movie was a hit with Netflix viewers and critics alike, and the streamer ordered up two sequels. Enola Holmes 2 hit Netflix in 2022 and was just as fun as the first film, and Enola Holmes 3 is reportedly in development. In the meantime, Netflix wasted no time booking Brown for another leading gig: Damsel.

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and written by Dan Mazeau, Damsel stars Brown as Elodie, the princess of an impoverished kingdom who agrees to marry another land’s prince (played by Love, Simon star Nick Robinson) in exchange for money for her people. Elodie resigns herself to a loveless marriage, but she certainly doesn’t expect her new groom to unceremoniously toss her into a cavern on her wedding day. It turns out, Elodie is nothing more than a sacrifice for a vengeful dragon. Now, she must use her wits—and her surprisingly utilitarian wedding dress—to survive.

Unlike in Stranger Things and Enola Holmes, Brown spends the majority of Damsel entirely alone on screen. She acknowledges as much in an interview for the Damsel press notes. “After I read the script, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve never done anything where I haven’t been able to share the load,'” Brown said. “Because everything I do, I’m able to coexist with someone else. With Stranger Things, I have wonderful cast mates that I’m able to depend on. And then with Enola Holmes, I’m able to depend on Henry Cavill or Louis Partridge. But with Damsel, it was this realization: ‘Oh my goodness, it’s just me. I have to be there every day and I have to give myself fully every day.'”

Put another way, Damsel is a true test of Brown’s star power. The supporting cast includes Robin Wright and Angela Bassett, true, but their appearances are few and far between. If you’re going to have a movie featuring a girl alone in a cave for an hour, you want to make sure that girl is someone audiences want to watch. Netflix has placed a bet on Brown, and, based on the success of Stranger Things and Enola Holmes, it seems like a safe one. She is, undeniably, a star. Or she is at Netflix, at least.

Whether she has the same appeal outside of the streaming bubble has yet to be truly tested. Yes, she has a supporting role in the Godzilla movies, but let’s be honest: No one watches those movies for the performances. They go to see Godzilla! Until Brown gets a non-Godzilla theatrical role that showcases her talent, her box office draw will remain a mystery. And she doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave Netflix behind.

Others have almost climbed the ladder of Netflix stardom like Brown. Lana Condor and Noah Centineo of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before fame both come to mind. Centineo, especially, followed up the popular rom-com with lead roles in Netflix originals like The Perfect Date and The Recruit. But both of those projects were poorly reviewed. Netflix audiences may love Centineo, but he has—so far—failed to garner anywhere near the level of the critical acclaim enjoyed by Brown. Laverne Cox shot into fame thanks to the popular Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, but she quickly left the streamer’s bubble. Joey King saw great success with Netflix’s The Kissing Booth and its subsequent sequels, but then jumped ship to Hulu for her Emmy-nominated role in The Act.

Brown’s career, in comparison, has been almost entirely contained to Netflix. After Damsel, she’ll be starring opposite Chris Pratt in a big-budget Netflix sci-fi action flick, The Electric State, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, expected on the streaming service later this year. It doesn’t look like Brown has plans to leave her streaming home anytime soon. And why should she? She’s a Netflix star, and she’s thriving. The Oscars can wait.