One of the most memorable moments in the third season of Stranger Things came in the finale, when Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) held up the group’s infiltration of a Russian stronghold beneath the town of Hawkins, Indiana to sing a song with Dustin (Gate Matarazzo): the theme from 1984’s The NeverEnding Story. In return, she relayed Planck’s Constant, which Dustin desperately needed for the operation. Almost every other character heard their duet. It was a bizarre, terrific moment.
And it almost didn’t happen, as the Stranger Things crew revealed speaking to Syfy Wire.
In the original script for this episode, this scene saw Suzie and Dustin sing the mournful Ent’s song from The Lord of the Rings — this song never showed up in Peter Jackson’s movies; Suzie and Dustin would have been drawing straight from J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, giant nerds that they are — which is a fantastic albeit much more dull piece, especially when compared to the bouncy NeverEnding Story theme song. It’s hard to think how different the energy in that scene might have been if they jammed out to this:
The only reason the Ent song wasn’t used was due to the upcoming release of Amazon’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings series, so writer Curtis Gwinn thought to use the NeverEnding Story theme, and they haven’t looked back since!
Star Maya Hawke (Robin) was delighted at the sudden change of song choice. “Oh my God! The NeverEnding Story is one of my favorite movies of all time,” she said. “I mean, that scene when the horse Artax sinks into the Swamp of Sadness? I could cry just thinking about it right now.“
"In contrast to that, the hopefulness of that song and that movie at large was a perfect way to end Stranger Things Season 3, because it was this collision of all this drama, fear, and scariness on the outside, but all these really human moments and these relationships existing and blooming in the context of all this madness."
It was probably for the best that they used the theme from an iconic ’80s movie. A huge part of the Stranger Things appeal comes from ’80s nostalgia. While The Lord of The Rings was certainly popular in the ’80s — it’s been popular pretty much round the clock since it came out in the ’50s — it’s not quintessentially 1980s like The Neverending Story.
Besides, Stranger Things already had a strong connection to The Lord of the Rings, since actor Sean Astin, who played Bob in season 2, also played Samwise Gamgee in Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy. References to Tolkien’s masterpiece go back to season 1, where the kids argue about the series in front on Hopper and another police officer.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels