Why are Stranger Things fans waiting with bated breath for a main character death?
And the follow-up question to that is, why haven’t there been many (if any) main character deaths in the four seasons of the show?
There’s a simple answer as to why the Stranger Things creators and writers are scared to kill off a main character. The Stranger Things characters are all cats, and as cats have nine lives, they actually cannot kill them off.
Being that influential films from the 1980s — such as A Nightmare on Elm Street — have largely acted as source material for Stranger Things, is it really that shocking for the writer and creators to be so reluctant in killing off a main character?
Well, in those films, you could say that Freddie Kruger was the main character, not the kiddos who kept meeting their end in every movie.
Plus, Stranger Things needs to rely on characters over a longer period of time than a one-off movie does.
Let’s fast forward from the ’80s a moment, and think about a mid-’90s movie that killed off a character unsuspectingly that shocked audiences. It was a shock because it’s not normal (we’re talking about Drew Barrymore in Scream — though she wasn’t a main character per se, she was touted as one in the lead up to the movie’s release).
Why do fans need/want a main character to die so terribly bad? Is it the shock value? To have something to discuss with other fans? To mourn? For some sort of sadistic fulfillment?
It’s the era
When it comes to all the character and world building in today’s day and age, especially with the ability to discuss and even dig deeper into things thanks to the internet, it’s actually not such a big shocker that the main cast of Stranger Things keeps on kickin’.
The Duffer Brothers, Matt and Ross, have even addressed the question (more than once) and it’s usually the same answer — it’s not necessary.
Maybe we should be asking why we’re all obsessed with them killing off a main character? Most of whom are/were kids anyway.
How would fans react if all of a sudden, they killed off Will, or Mike, or hell, even El for that matter.
“Believe us, we’ve explored all options in the writing room,” said Matt Duffer on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in July. “Just as a complete hypothetical, if you kill Mike, that’s depressing.”
Yes, yes it would be. Some might think it’s the monsters that make the show, the ’80s tropes, the cool scenes and music, but at its heart, Stranger Things is a show about unbreakable bonds and friendships and love, and especially in the ’80s, these were things that endured.
And, when the writers killed off someone whom the audience thought was a major character in season one — Barb — fans did not take it very well. They still want her back today, and every time there’s a Barb mention in the show (like this season, when they flashed back to the pool where she died), fans go bonkers.
It could also be that the main cast has smart agents, and they all have contracts that run multiple years, or have a clause in there that they cannot be killed off.
If we really wrap our minds around it, though, it’s because the formula works.
Keep the central crew going, even with some nicks, bruises, bone breaks, and even being possessed, rotate in some phenomenal supporting characters for a season (or two), and if someone has to die, pull from the second pool.
We know now that a main character almost died in season four, according to Matt Duffer. Except, well, when people talk about a main character, they probably didn’t have in mind who Matt did.
“In terms of who makes it, who lives or dies. I think there was a version where Dimitri, AKA Enzo, didn’t make it,” Matt Duffer told Collider. “Then he ended up making it. But that’s [the most] radical of a departure from the original idea versus what we ended up with.”
Yeah, not really a main character now, is he?
Let’s be real (about a totally bonkers fictional supernatural thriller that features monsters and time travel, among other things) — some folks who want a character to be killed off are watching Stranger Things for a different reason and in a different way than people who just want a good show to watch, some good themes to follow, and characters to relate to and enjoy.
If it ain’t broke…
Should they really kill off a character just to satiate a portion of the audience, and the internet?
Is that really the value of the show? Some folks think yes, including this writer in the UK.
Are fans tuning in, or tuning out, because of the lack of major character deaths? Well, viewership seems to be going steady.
Then again, Millie Bobby Brown, the person playing the ‘mainest’ character, Eleven, is on record saying they need to start chopping people down, if nothing else because there are too many characters now.
“It’s way too big,” Brown said, according to Variety. “Last night [at the premiere], we couldn’t even take one group picture because there were like 50 of us. I was like, you need to start killing people off. The Duffer brothers are two sensitive Sallies that don’t want to kill anyone off. We need to be Game of Thrones. We need to have the mindset of Game of Thrones.”
On that same Happy Sad Confused podcast episode, Matt Duffer responded to that, and by virtue to the audience members who still hope for a more impactful death.
“What did Millie call us? She said we were ‘sensitive Sallies.’ She’s hilarious.” Matt said. “We aren’t Game of Thrones. This is Hawkins, it’s not Westeros. The show becomes not Stranger Things anymore, because you do have to treat it realistically, right?”
This is still an ’80s thriller show (with movie-length installments now) that aims to captivate the audience and continue to strengthen the bond between fans and those main characters. To kill them off would make fans upset or wonder why one was killed off instead of another, and that’s just not in the archetype or theme of a show that is relying on ’80s source material —where it usually worked out for the main characters.
Now, if this was a straight-up horror show, then yeah, they’d get killed off like in some Friday the 13th or Texas Chainsaw Massacre way, but it’s not, it’s a thriller, a spook-you-out show, and, even still, a show for younger audiences.
Did a main character ever die?
Technically, the biggest character to die is Billy Hargrove (played by Dacre Montgomery), based on how long he was in the show and his role in the storytelling.
Or, maybe it was Sean Astin’s Bob Newby, who also popped up over two seasons as Joyce’s (Winona Ryder) love interest.
Hargrove was prominent enough in season two as Max’s (and Steve’s) tormentor, then he had a big role in season three as well, as he eventually was overtaken by the Mind Flayer. And he continued to pop up in season four as well, even if it’s mostly in flashbacks.
But there wasn’t a huge emotional attachment to Billy. Or really Bob, for that matter, in a way that would satiate those thirsting for a big-time death.
We’ve had other characters die, but they basically debuted and died in the same season.
Of course, the most obvious and recent instance of this was the death of Eddie Munson (played by Joseph Quinn) in season four. The lead-up to his death wasn’t that shocking or startling, though, and some fans have even speculated that he will return in some way or another in the next season. It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t, when it comes to killing off someone — or anyone — in Stranger Things.
Imagine if a main character died, would fans want them to be revived as well? Yeah, of course!
And fans have even revisited the saddest moments from the show and united around them, so perhaps a main character death would create an online funeral or memorial of sorts that would bond them even more (in their minds).
Looking forward, since season four started to turn into a pure horror show at times, if season five goes that route, then definitely expect someone to be killed off. Plus, it’s largely reported that season five is the final season of the show, so killing someone off isn’t as big of a deal.
They don’t have to save them for season six after all, so might as well go ahead and prune off a couple of those mainstays on the show, right?