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Felipe Rangel is a Superheroes Lead Writer and Reviewer at ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021, with a focus on superhero projects. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Since the launch of the Superheroes vertical in 2023, he has focused his efforts on coming up with insightful analyses of Marvel and DC's projects.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."
Stranger Things has ended, but many fans believe what Netflix put out was a fake ending, and after new evidence seemingly emerged, those theories got a boost. After five seasons, Stranger Things' series finale was finally released on the last day of 2025. The show's ending, and season 5 as a whole, have since proved themselves divisive for a few reasons.
Chief among them is Eleven's fate in the Stranger Things ending. While most members of the party got a happy ending, graduating from high school and ready to move into adulthood, Eleven seemingly sacrificed herself, though Mike believes she is still out there. On Rotten Tomatoes, Stranger Things season 5 has dropped to a 56% audience score. The finale's outrage has started a "fake ending" movement.
Stranger Things' Fake Ending Evidence Explained
Fans have taken to social media to point out details that could lead to a reveal that the Stranger Things finale was fake. Those include elements like "X A Lie" being spelled by the characters' books in the final Dungeons & Dragons session or even by the color of the graduation gowns worn in the final episode.
This movement, dubbed #ConformityGate, has now seen a new development. Upon searching on Netflix for "fake ending," the only project that shows up, be it a movie or TV show, is Stranger Things, as seen above. I have to admit that I did find that amusing upon doing so myself, but the answer behind Stranger Things' "fake ending" is likely quite simple.
Why Stranger Things' Series Finale Is Real
Given the divisive response to the Stranger Things series finale, many fans are adamant that the ending is fake. That has led to a huge influx of searches, with Google's data showing a surge of "fake ending" searches in relation to Stranger Things starting on January 4th. I believe that high search volume is to blame for Netflix's new "evidence."
The Netflix search algorithm might have simply analyzed that a lot of people were searching for "fake ending" in connection to Stranger Things, which is why the show is the one and only result that comes up when looking for that term. That grounded explanation is likely the only possible answer to the Stranger Things fake ending debate for a simple reason.
Netflix invested a lot of money and time into both the series finale itself and the promotion around it. We have to remember that the Stranger Things series finale clocked in at over 2 hours, with tons of VFX shots that included a huge battle between the party, Vecna, and the Mind Flayer. As such, Stranger Things' fake ending theories should not pan out.
Release Date 2016 - 2025-00-00
Network Netflix
Showrunner Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
Directors Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz
Writers Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
English (US) ·