Caleb McLaughlin has grown up! (Picture: Netflix)

Stranger Things actor Caleb McLaughlin posed topless for a photo shoot, and fans are in disbelief over his age.

He first found fame in 2016 playing Lucas Sinclair on the Netflix thriller series which also stars Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp, and somehow we are now eight years in the future. The world needs to slow down its orbit of the sun!

When he began filming for the Emmy-winning programme, Caleb was only 13, he’s no longer a teenager. In fact, he hasn’t been one for over two years as he celebrated his 22nd birthday in October.

To celebrate a ‘new era,’ he posed sans top for Cosmopolitan magazine. In the images, he shows off his model prowess in a variety of outfits which all expose his abs – including one leather trousers look, and another shot where he punches towards the camera wearing just boxing shorts and silver jewellery.

Amongst the many, many (many) flame emojis, some long-time observers of his career couldn’t believe how grown up he now was.

‘This dude was a kid like a week ago,’ wrote user Dumbo Gumboo – one of Caleb’s 13.6million followers on Instagram.

Others joked they need to hurry up and release the fifth and final season before the cast reach a big milestone.

‘They might wanna hurry up and finish this season before they turn into grandparents,’ wrote X account Bitinguranklez.

X user Nadal_istheGOAT wrote: ‘How is he 22 years old??? I swear he was like 16 just a few years ago.’

Tasimetre needs to spend more time googling Caleb’s age as they wrote: ‘Last time I checked he was like 11 no?’

Caleb with his castmates (Picture: Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage)

While others were just shocked he was now old enough to grow a substantial amount of facial hair.

‘Bro has a beard now,’ Goatd3ys wrote before adding a skull. If you looked that up in the unofficial emoji dictionary, you’d find it means ‘dead’ which translates to shocked.

The comments were probably expected by Caleb who purposefully decided that this was a re-introduction.

‘I feel this is a great way of stepping into my adulthood in the industry,’ he explained in the corresponding interview.

Caleb has a new film out (Picture: Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Sony Pictures)

Despite being ready to step into adulthood, he’s ‘really sad’ about waving goodbye to the programme that was a huge part of his childhood.

‘Stranger Things has been a big part of my life,’ he reflected but added that now is a good time for it to end.

‘The Duffers [Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer – the creators of Stranger Things] have done so well creating this classic and delivering each season, but I think it makes sense that the show is ending.

‘We don’t want to ruin a classic or keep milking the cow. I feel like we’re going to end on a good note and that’s where we should end.’

Caleb has plenty going on outside Stranger Things too – as well as making music, he’s got a new movie The Book of Clarence which explains his new facial feature: ‘It was actually my first time playing an adult so I had to grow out my beard for the film, versus in Stranger Things where I’m in middle school and somehow fighting Demogorgons.’

Stranger Things is available to watch on Netflix.

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‘Last time I checked he was like 11 no?’