Chase Stokes on ‘Marked Men,’ ‘Valiant One,’ & ‘Outer Banks’ Finale

Cormac Newman February 21, 2025

Change is the only constant — or so the saying goes. Scholars often attribute the quote to Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who poetically put it: “Everything changes and nothing remains still; and you cannot step twice into the same stream.” When I talk to Chase Stokes, the ancient wordsmith doesn’t come up in conversation — yet I’d suspect he and Heraclitus could find plenty of common ground. As Stokes prepares to film the final season of Outer Banks, Netflix’s smash-hit drama that catapulted its cast into the Gen-Z zeitgeist, Stokes is stepping into a new stream himself. Just last month, Stokes launched two new projects — Marked Men: Rule + Shaw and Valiant One — his first and second lead roles in a feature film. Things are changing.

“[Outer Banks has] been during the most developmental period of time for us as humans. Your twenties is where you learn, shape, and craft a lot of your ideologies that you sit with for the rest of your life.”

Chase Stokes

“Life is entirely different. I mean, everything that life was — the day we started [Outer Banks] versus where we are now — nothing is the same,” Stokes tells me over Zoom. “That’s a byproduct of the success of the show, and that’s a byproduct of growing up. Like, Jonathan Daviss and Madison Bailey — they couldn’t even legally have a sip of alcohol when we were filming the first season.” To put it in perspective, the show premiered on April 15th, 2020; think of how much you’ve changed since the days of whipped coffee and sanitized groceries. Plus, an overnight sensation like Outer Banks brings plenty of professional opportunities, too. Venturing onto the big screen, Stokes follows in the footsteps of castmates like Drew Starkey and Madelyn Cline, who starred in 2024’s Queer and 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, respectively.

“Anytime there’s that level of professional growth in this industry, you see a lot of things shift and change,” Stokes says. “Everybody has gone on their own individual paths, which I think is a beautiful thing, but [Outer Banks] has always been this safe space for us.”

After four seasons of filming, it’s bittersweet to see Outer Banks in the rearview, Stokes says. “When the world has a different perspective on you, you have these eight core cast members, and the crew — that’s been the same since the very first shot of the very first day of season one — it’s like a little bubble. You go back and you feel a sense of normalcy again,” Stokes explains. “As much as that has been a beautiful thing, I think all of us are very, very excited about the next chapter. But, in that same sentence, there’s a real sense of of sorrow and, like, [we’re] almost already starting to mourn.”

Of course, it’s natural to grieve; the role coloured a crucial period in Stokes’ life. By the time Season 5 wraps, he will have spent the better part of a decade as John B. That’s a century in the streaming age. “Most people don’t have anything consistent for seven years,” Stokes agrees. “It’s been during the most developmental period of time for us as humans. Your twenties is where you learn, shape, and craft a lot of your ideologies that you sit with for the rest of your life.”

Will those ideologies carry into Stokes’ next phase? It’s possible. Given Outer Banks‘ theatric fusion of comedy, adventure, drama, and romance, Stokes has versatility in spades. He’s convincing as the charistmatic (if unprepared) Sergeant Edward Brockman, Valiant One‘s accidental leader. There’s even a trace of John B’s troubled-boy-next-door sensibility in Rule, the reluctantly-romantic protagonist of Marked Men.

“It’s a kid who’s not prepared, but finds a way to to make it work, and I think that’s a beautiful life lesson. Even if you’re not prepared, you gotta find a way.”

Chase Stokes on new film, ‘Valiant One.’

“The intensity of the filming experience with Outer Banks has really primed me to jump into these types of roles,” Stokes says of his 2025 films. “The audience can see me as an actor and not look at me as just John B — as a one trick pony — and to see that I have the ability and the versatility to tell different stories in different worlds, whether it be wearing a military uniform or covered in a bunch of fake tattoos,” he adds with a laugh.

Take Valiant One‘s Brockman, for instance: he’s a twenty-something officer with Silicon Valley aspirations, drudging through his day-to-day service until — through a freak accident — he finds himself behind enemy lines, forced to lead his team to safety. Geography and genre put a golf of difference between Brockman and Outer Banks, yet Stokes resonates with the character nonetheless. “It’s the underdog,” says the actor. “It’s a kid who’s not prepared, but finds a way to to make it work, and I think that’s a beautiful life lesson. Even if you’re not prepared, you gotta find a way.”

As Stokes tells it, Valiant One is a story of accountability. “[The army] is what [Brockman] felt like was the only option,” Stokes explains. “‘Like, ‘I’m gonna go to school, I’m gonna get my degree, and then this degree is gonna lead to the next step, which is a cushy job that gives me benefits, security, and safety.'” Just a few scenes in, however Brockman’s future plans are thrown to the wind. Tasked with steering his colleagues to safety, he’s forced to rise to the occasion. Character work takes centre stage.

“He realizes very quickly in this film that if he doesn’t step up, nobody will. It’s his responsibility to take care of those around him,” Stokes elaborates. Brockman’s internal battle parallels the physical conflict; life-threatening situations form a pressure cooker for personal development. In fact, this inner turmoil is what first piqued Stokes’ interest. After connecting with director Steve Barrett, signing on was an easy decision: “I loved the character and I loved that it wasn’t a conventional military film,” he says. “It was character driven, and that felt really fresh to me.”

“Actively choosing to invest and commit to things is something that I’ve learned in my 32 years on this earth. It’s either commit or don’t.”

Chase Stokes

While shooting Valiant One, Stokes was clad in camouflage, enjoying a rare moment of downtime between takes, when his phone buzzed. A few minutes later, the actor had a new project to pursue. Titled Marked Men: Rule + Shaw, the picture offered a chance to explore another genre — romance — with legendary director Nick Cassavetes. “I was just really, really fortunate with a little bit of divine timing,” Stokes says. A fan of Cassavetes, he counts John Q, My Sister’s Keeper, and The Notebook among his favourites. “He’s just a really honest filmmaker,” Stokes adds. “I wanted to work in the space and show that I could be a versatile actor.”

Marked Men is an adaptation of Jay Crownover’s 2012 romance novel, Rule. Like the book, Cassavetes’ film navigates the nuances of friendship and romance, capturing apprehension and intimacy between its titular characters. “There’s some heavy source material,” Stokes admits. “A lot of people who are going through the search of finding love, they’re navigating their own version of loving themselves first. That’s really what I loved about Rule. He refuses to be happy within himself, so how can he ever believe that he’s gonna make somebody else happy? To me, that was a fascinating progression of real honesty. That’s something that we can all kind of attest to.”

These ideas sparked deeper discussions on set. Cassavetes created a “beautiful layer of trust” for the cast, Stokes says, which allowed for an open dialogue about the character. “At that point in my life, I was not in a great place, and I was asking a lot of the the big questions: ‘What is my purpose?’ ‘What is my path?’ — a lot of whys, so I talked to Nick about that,” recalls the actor. “Nick and I had these forms of therapy sessions; like, really doing the deep dive and figuring out how to take those things and turn them into performance. A lot of it comes from being able to be honest with yourself […] I think in order to get performances, you have to have a safe space to do it, and Nick provides that.”

As Stokes describes the process, his admiration for Cassavetes is obvious. “He knows how to get the right performances and he knows the right ways to tap into things,” Stokes explains. “He just really trusted me, and he really allowed me to go and try things and play.” Cassavetes’ collaborative approach inspires confidence, Stokes adds, which helped bring Rule to life in “a very honest way.”

As the inked-out cover art might suggest, Rule has a huge respect for his craft. As he dove into the script, Stokes identified with the tattoo artist’s drive. “Tattoos are forever, and you can’t fuck those things up,” he starts. “I think that it is absolutely how I approach everything; I’m either diving to the depths of the ocean or I’m sitting on the beach looking at the water. There’s no in between.” Sharpening his skills alongside Cassavetes, Marked Men offered Stokes the chance to “commit even further.”

“I love the resurgence of rom-coms. I love the resurgence of feel good movies. Being able to be in those spaces and tell incredible stories with incredible characters and people around me, that’s really what I crave the most.”

Chase Stokes

In that vein, delivering a quality performance is a way to honour the opportunity: “When you see people half ass things, [who] don’t appreciate things, or don’t understand the value of these moments in life, it’s frustrating. 100 years — if we’re super fucking lucky in this human existence — is not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things,” Stokes explains. “So, actively choosing to invest and commit to things is something that I’ve learned in my 32 years on this earth. It’s either commit or don’t. Don’t waste people’s time, and don’t try to waste the time of others that are willing and want to commit in those spaces. It was really cathartic to say it out loud and to say it with that intensity — and to play a character that loves what he does as much as I also love what I do.”

Stokes’ tenacity is palpable. He’s got a true passion for performance. Calling Outer Banks “the ultimate film school experience,” he credits the show with teaching him the ins and outs on both sides of the camera. “Taking all of those tools into the world of feature films has been exciting,” he says. While he’ll miss having the comfort of Outer Banks (“a beautiful thing”) to go back to, Stokes has a level head. “If you were to ask most artists in this industry, those comfort blankets are few and far in between,” he tells me. So, when Valiant One and Marked Men challenged Stokes to expand his repertoire, he was ready to take the plunge.

The actor’s next move is anyone’s guess. There are plenty of projects in the pipeline — including Outer Banks‘ fifth season, of course — but right now, he’s enjoying the ride. “I’m very thankful that these projects, and Outer Banks, have allowed people to see me in a different light and opened a new perspective on how people take me as an artist,” Stokes says. He lists inspirations like Glen Powell, whose meteoric rise ran the gamut from action to romance, alongside other genre-sampling stars like Ryan Gosling. “I love the resurgence of rom-coms. I love the resurgence of feel good movies,” he adds. “Being able to be in those spaces and tell incredible stories with incredible characters and people around me, that’s really what I crave the most.”

“I just want to continue on that path: telling great stories and making people feel like they can disassociate from this fucking crazy world that we’re living in right now.”

Chase Stokes

As for John B? Stokes is just as excited to see the Season 5 script as we are. “I hope, at the end of this, we really give the audience the thing that they want the most. Every now and again, I’ll go sleuth on the Internet and see what the world is saying about the show. As much as they love the action and they love the high intensity of certain components, I would say the majority of people would love to see the Pogues just sitting on a porch, smoking weed, and having, like, a sense of normalcy,” Stokes laughs. “I would love to see John B fulfill his responsibilities and lean into love, and — now that Sarah’s pregnant — [see John B] bringing this child to life and being a better father than his dad, Big John ever was.”

Endings are never easy. After four seasons, Stokes says the characters have truly become part of the cast. “Anytime you have to say goodbye to something that you’ve invested that much into is is a tough thing,” he explains. Yet the absence of Outer Banks will leave space for something new, too. “I just want to continue on that path: telling great stories and making people feel like they can disassociate from this fucking crazy world that we’re living in right now — whether it’s episodic again or, ideally, in film,” the actor says. “For me to get people to go to the theatres and have two hours of time feels like a really refreshing thing.”

See the trailers for Valiant One and Marked Men: Rule + Shaw online now.