“Stranger Things” ended with a dramatic series finale and the creators behind the show say that really is a final goodbye for those characters…
SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE STRANGER THINGS SERIES FINALE
After five seasons — or five installments — “Stranger Things” came to a close just days ago with a series finale that brought to an end a show that captured the whole world’s attention. The finale titled “The Rightside Up” featured a final battle between the heroes from Hawkins and Vecna/The Mindflayer as they sought to stop the Abyss from colliding with our world using a wormhole we’ve come to know as the Upside Down.
Following the final battle and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) sacrificing herself to destroy the Upside Down and finish any experiments the government hoped to continue by using her as a guinea pig, the rest of the group moved on without her with an epilogue that took place 18 months later giving closure to Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Max, Hopper, Joyce, Nancy, Steve, Jonathan and Robin (amongst others).
With such care and time taken to deliver that final goodbye with those characters, is there any chance the creators behind the show — Matt and Ross Duffer — would ever consider bringing them back for a future “Stranger Things” installment or any of the pending spinoffs in the works?
“We really don’t know. I mean, Mike’s closing the basement door. We’re closing the door on the story,” Matt Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s one reason we had the closing credits the way that we did, because it was a way of saying: This is finite. This is the end of their story. It’s the end of the story of Mike and Eleven and Joyce [Winona Ryder] and Hopper. So, no, there’s no plan or intention to tell the story because it’s a coming-of age story. Ultimately, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the show always was. When he closes the door to the basement, he’s closing the door on his childhood and he’s moving onto adulthood.
“I mean, I guess a sequel could be about a midlife crisis. That just sounds really uninteresting! (Laughs.) Grandpa Hopper? I don’t know how that would read as anything but a gross cash grab to me. I wish I could talk a little bit more about the spinoff, but I’m not allowed to yet. But Ross and I are really excited about exploring new characters and a new mythology, but still very much are interested in telling a story in the spirit of Stranger Things. It feels like with this final season, we finished saying everything we wanted to say about these characters, this story and the Upside Down.”
The Duffer brothers did confirm that the upcoming “Stranger Things” spinoff does have a connection to that mysterious briefcase shown during the final season that contained a rock from the Abyss that effectively infected Henry Creel, giving him powers and tying him to the Mindflayer.
But there’s no plans for Henry Creel to return or any of the other characters in the spinoffs, which is why the “Stranger Things” finale included such an extensive epilogue to truly say goodbye to Mike and the others one last night.
