Does Joyce die in Stranger Things?

Winona Ryder plays Joyce Byers on Stranger Things. A working class single mom, Joyce has time and time again proven herself resourceful, tenacious, and determined. As portrayed by Winona Ryder, she’s become a fan favorite.

Joyce has appeared in all three seasons of Stranger Things released so far. She’s had to endure some pretty big traumas — including losing her son Will in the Upside Down in season 1 and surviving the death of her friend and potential love interest Jim Hopper in season 3 — but she herself has kept on kicking.

At the end of season 3, Joyce took her family — which includes her two sons and now Eleven, who needs somewhere to stay now that Hopper is gone — to California, figuring that it might be a good idea to get away from the town where monsters from another world routinely try to tear their faces off.

Does Joyce die in Stranger Things season 4?

Netflix recently released a new trailer for the upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things. Joyce is in it, and she’s fine, but there are a lot of new dangers on the horizon.

Joyce is a pretty integral part of the show, so she has some plot armor. That said, there are only two seasons of Stranger Things left, so it’s entirely possible she could die in this final stretch. No one knows at this point.

There’s also the matter of Winona Ryder herself having broken out in the ’80s, specifically in 1988’s Beetlejuice. Creators Matt and Ross Duffer have joked that the show has to be over by then. “That’s the threshold we can’t cross, which is once Winona is a superstar in the world, like the show has to stop, because [the kids’ heads] will spontaneously combust or something,” Matt said. “That’s the final scene: the kids go to see Beetlejuice and their heads explode,” added Ross.

The first half of Stranger Things season 4 premieres on May 27. The second half will arrive on July 1.

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