Stranger Things creators explain Eleven’s fate after polarising series finale

Stranger Things showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer have answered some questions fans still have after the finale of the hit science fiction series dropped on New Year’s Day, including Eleven’s final fate.

The final episode of the show, titled “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”, debuted on Netflix a week after the previous batch of episodes dropped, and has drawn wildly polarised reactions from fans.

In a new interview, the Duffer Brothers responded to fans’ looking online for answers on whether Eleven really did die and why they would prefer to “leave it up to the fans”.

“I don't think they're gonna find the answer, though, on Google,” Matt Duffer told Entertainment Weekly.

In the final episode of the show, the heroes from Hawkins, Indiana ultimately manage to defeat Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), thanks to the supernatural abilities of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Will Byers (Noah Schnapp).

After Joyce (Winona Ryder) cuts off the villain’s head, Hopper (David Harbour) and Murray (Brett Gelman) rig bombs on the inter-dimensional bridge to the Upside Down, with Eleven seemingly staying behind in the nether world to sacrifice herself.

In one of the final scenes of the show, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) claims that Eleven had actually faked her own death, and had managed to make it out of the Upside Down. As he speaks, we see an older Eleven wandering through a faraway place, before reaching a town.

However, it remains unclear whether Eleven really survived or not, on which Ross Duffer said: “Our goal, our hope is to leave it up to the fans, ultimately, and the audience in terms of what they believe, just as we leave it up to our characters in that basement to decide what they believe or not.”

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Many fans have questioned the decision to not give Eleven a happy ending, as they felt the character had led a tragic life and deserved some sort of normalcy.

“When are writers going to realise that audiences are very tired of seeing female characters sacrifice everything only to end up alone and isolated? Eleven was manipulated and abused her entire life, she found a home and family and forcing her to give that up is not empowering,” one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The Duffer Brothers have previously said that Eleven ending the series with the rest of the Hawkins crew was never in the plan, and explained why that had remained so for eight years.

“She was never gonna be there. It was always gonna end in a D&D campaign and then leaving and shutting the door on their childhood. That’s been planned for eight years. I think it really just came down to figuring out the story that Mike was telling and getting to that moment of, ‘I believe.’ This all happened very early in the writers’ room on season 5,” Ross Duffer said.

He goes on to explain that the scene changed as the writers developed more of Holly’s (Nell Fisher) character, but the show ending had never changed.

“It was very, very early on in the writing process that we locked in on what those final 10 minutes were. They never changed, ultimately, throughout the course of writing the show and/or in production.”

Matt Duffer explained that the choice to leave Eleven’s ending ambiguous was intentional, and the different choices presented to her were in fact conversations from the writers’ room.

“Hopper’s speech to her, he’s expressing what a lot of us were expressing in the room, but then there was the flip side of that argument, which is what Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) was saying,” he said.

In the series, Hopper urges Eleven to consider a future beyond the battle, while Kali argues that ending their own lives may be the only way to permanently eliminate the possibility of being used to create more children like them.

“Ultimately, we did decide there has to be some sort of sacrifice. It's funny when you see people getting frustrated with Kali, because of course, she's telling you what you don't want to hear, but it's the truth, right? There's a reality to what she's saying. Eleven, whether she lives or dies, makes a major sacrifice,” Matt Duffer said.

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“Either she’s dead or she’s left her friends behind for a different life. But I think that sacrifice is ultimately very courageous and heroic. She’s choosing to do that to prevent other kids from experiencing what she's experienced.

“And so the ending, we wanted it to be from Mike’s point of view and the kids’ point of view. So they don't know, and because they don't know, the audience doesn't know, because if we knew and they knew, then it defeats the entire purpose of her sacrifice.”

The final season has received wildly polarised reactions from fans, with many complaining that the series still leaves multiple open threads and plot holes.

The Independent’s Nick Hilton, in a three-star review, described the series as “Netflix’s most important original IP has morphed from a brilliant, influential coming-of-age saga into just another CGI rock’em sock’em adventure.”

All episodes of Stranger Things are now streaming on Netflix.