The Duffer Bros Explain Why Their 'Stranger Things' Finale Was Not a Bloodbath

It's been a week since we left Hawkins, Indiana, for the finale of Stranger Things, and I already miss hanging out with those kids. But I'm very happy they're all okay.

When it comes to TV finales, we loved that Stranger Things took the time to give everyone their happy endings, but there had to be some temptation to just kill a bunch of people off.

The show's creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, appeared on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, where they explained why everyone made it.

Let's dive in.

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The Duffers on the Stranger Things Finale

When it comes to tying up all the threads in a TV series, it can be a serious undertaking. You have to explore every angle and talk through every avenue.

In the above episode, Matt Duffer noted that while the writers' room explores "every possible avenue," character deaths were never the primary focus. He explained that the show is, at its core, an adventure and a coming-of-age story:

Matt Duffer: "In the writers’ room, you go over, and it’s not just character deaths. I mean, you explore everything. Because why wouldn’t you? As much as possible, you want to explore every possible avenue in terms of where the season and the show could go, and you try to land on what feels right. I mean, the percentage of time spent talking about death and the deaths of characters is really small, you know, because that’s not what the show has ever been about. It’s an adventure, coming-of-age story. We could’ve definitely killed some people; it’s just not what we want to do, and it’s not, to me, what the show is, or what the show is about."

Ross Duffer echoed this sentiment, explaining that they did the "exercise" of running through potential deaths for every character. However, they found that killing off main cast members often "dismantled the whole thematic structure" they had built since Season 1.

Ross Duffer: "I think when we were looking at the various finales of long-running shows that landed the plane, the ones that did it the best really just stayed true to what they were. And so, whatever the noise is or bloodlust, at the end of the day, you have to go, 'No, we need to be true to what Stranger Things is and always was from season 1 on.'""You go through every character, and you talk about it, and we did that exercise, and once you go through that, you realize that it was wrong for the show and the story and these characters and this coming-of-age story that ultimately we're telling."

While I saw a lot of chatter on Twitter about how the show maybe should have killed off someone, at its heart, this was an ode to The Goonies. It's supposed to be an adventure where everyone comes out better on the other end, despite some sacrifices. Killing kids doesn't fit that bill.

Summing It All Up

There are always armchair quarterbacks who want different things out of TV shows. What I admire about the Duffers is that they stuck with their own vision and worked with their writers room to deliver something they're both proud of and that echoed the things they planted in season one.

Let me know what you think in the comments.