WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4.
Believe it or not, Stranger Things fans are so devastated by the death of Joseph Quinn’s Eddie Munson that a change.org petition has garnered over 40,000 signatures (and growing!) from outraged and heartbroken viewers.
Created by an anonymous group of passionate individuals known as the “The Fans of Eddie Munson,” the petition states its mission: “This is a petition I have started to bring back fan favorite Eddie Munson. The Duffer Brothers have unfairly killed him off and many other fans and I think he deserves to be brought back and not just as a flashback, please sign this petition to spread awareness.”
Each passing second, more and more signatures are added as fans spread awareness to get the outreach covering the whole globe. With only nine thousand signatures left at the time of writing, the petition is on target for 50,000 signatures by the end of the week at the latest.
As we all remember (and try to forget), Joseph Quinn’s Eddie Munson was the leader of Hawkins High’s Dungeons & Dragons club, known as The Hellfire Club. Introduced in the fourth season as a social outcast and certified freak, Munson was a non-conformist metalhead who loved the finer things in life, like drugs and rock and roll. Due to his eccentric personality, Munson was unpopular amongst the jocks and the prefects. When Chrissy Cunningham was brutally murdered by Vecna in Eddie’s trailer, all accusations fell upon him; he was hunted down as a fugitive and forced to hide out in an abandoned shed near Lover’s Lake.
In particular, basketball star and head jock Jason formed a rivalry with Eddie after believing him responsible for his girlfriend Chrissy’s death. In the finale episode, “The Piggyback,” just as the Hawkins gang are leaving the Upside Down through a portal in Eddie’s trailer, they are pursued by a swarm of Demobats. Knowing that the Demobats would enter Hawkins and wreak havoc, Eddie elects to stay behind and fight them off. Subsequently, Eddie is attacked by the swarm and effectively eaten alive. He dies in Dustin’s arms, but not before telling him to look after the other so-called freaks at Hawkins High and continue the legacy of The Hellfire Club.
The Duffer Brothers made their bed when they made the executive decision to kill Quinn’s character — and now they’re lying in it. Stranger Things fans are sharpening their pitchforks and lighting their torches to storm the Netflix headquarters unless Eddie somehow miraculously survives. Even though the whole thing seems a tad dramatic, you have to admire the devotion of the Eddie Munson superfans.
If you — like many others — want Eddie Munson back for Stranger Things 5, just sign the petition and help it gain some traction.