Who Else Was Going to Die in the 'Stranger Things' Finale? The Duffer Brothers Answer [Exclusive]

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[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 finale]

The creators of Stranger Things have opened up about alternative endings to the hit sci-fi series, particularly if there was ever a plan for any other main characters to die. Fans were expecting the Stranger Things series finale to be a bloodbath, but the only two characters to perish were Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and even the latter isn’t as clear as it first seemed. Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) revealed at the end that he believes Eleven survived, but creators Matt and Ross Duffer told Collider that they feel her ending is “up to interpretation."

In a post-finale interview, Collider’s Steve Weintraub also asked the Stranger Things savants if there were ever any plans to kill another main character, like Max (Sadie Sink) or Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo). Matt Duffer stepped up and spoke about how they settle on who lives and who dies, “I think every year, you kind of go through the exercise, especially this year. We didn’t even know [what] we were going to be doing with Eleven when we were working on the top of Season 5. You sort of start talking through it, and then you explore. You go, ‘If you kill this character, what does it do?’”

He continued, explaining how they wanted the ending of Stranger Things to feel like an homage to Steven Spielberg, “And ultimately, what it came down to for me and Ross, and this goes back to what Ross was saying about the finales that worked and what we liked, is them staying true to what they are, and that this show is an adventure story, a coming-of-age story, and an homage to Spielberg and ‘80s movies. It didn’t feel right when we explored some of the additional deaths.”

Matt Duffer also revealed why Eleven’s ending worked perfectly as a moment of sacrifice, and not just dying during a moment of battle. It was impossible not to fear for her life during her fight with Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), but she ultimately comes out on top and chooses to stay in the Upside Down when it’s destroyed to stop anyone from hunting her and her friends. He continued, saying:

"Nothing was really on the table for particularly very long. We just settled on the Eleven thing because that's something that we… As much as we wanted to, and I'm sure if we could have made her not sacrifice herself, we would have, this is a character that we came up with 10 years ago that we've been writing for 10 years, and we all care about very deeply, but we couldn't figure out a way for that to work. So, that's where that sense of inevitability came from that we were talking about, that the ending in our minds feels inevitable, but also true to the spirit of the show."

How Did ‘Stranger Things’ Fare at the Box Office?

Netflix put the Stranger Things finale in theaters everywhere on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and the final episode performed exceptionally well. News broke this morning that Stranger Things earned between $25 and $28 million from the two-day release, which could change how Netflix decides to handle theatrical releases going forward. After seeing the success of the Stranger Things finale, it could be harder to turn down larger theatrical releases for some of its bigger properties.

Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage on the future of Stranger Things and watch all episodes of the series on Netflix. You can also read our in-depth, spoiler filled interview with the Duffer brothers about the series finale over here.