Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) has had a whirlwind of a romantic life since Stranger Things began in 2016. When the series started she was with Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), who was a bit more of a shallow cad back then. While that was ending, she found herself attracted to Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), who had more of a brooding loner thing going on. They’ve been together ever since.
However, season 4 found them at a crossroads. Nancy and Jonathan are living thousands of miles apart and both of them seem a little relieved to have some distance. Plus, Jonathan is lying to her about his college applications and continued to do so when they finally met back up in the finale, although they are still together. And plus plus, Steve has apparently being holding a candle for Nancy this whole time and shared some of his feelings with her in season 4, including thanking her for giving him “a wake up call” back in season 1 and revealing that he has a fantasy where they’re married and have a huge litter of children.
It’s maybe not the best time for a love triangle, what with Max in a coma and the twisted Upside Down dimension leaking into Hawkins, but love waits for no man, woman, or otherworldly demon. Nancy may soon have a choice to make.
Nancy and Steve and Jonathan and Stranger Things season 5
“It’s really tough. I don’t know,” Dyer told Variety. “It feels like she’s been in a relationship for a while so maybe she needs some self discovery time. It’s a bit complicated. Whatever happens, I would hope that she does it with integrity. I personally had some crunchy feelings about how the whole Jonathan thing started sort of behind Steve’s back. I can’t believe she did that. I mean, I can.”
"I just think she’s stronger now. I think she’s more sure of herself. So whatever she decides to do, she’ll do it for the right reasons."
Some self-discovery time, huh? Perhaps Nancy will choose to date herself for a while?
This may be affected by recency bias, but fans seem to want her to end up back with Steve. And Dyer acknowledges that “Nancy and Steve have come so far” from who they were in the beginning of the show. “What this season touches on is the fact that these two people do care about each other and that hasn’t gone away,” Dyer said. “What that is and what label you want to put on that, I don’t know, but we see these characters meeting again after growing up and going through life with it. So that was really lovely to play. It was really fun and touching. Truly, I have no idea where it’s gonna go but I do like that they at least still care about each other.”
At least she’ll find out before us. There’s no release date for Stranger Things 5 set as of yet, but we probably won’t see any new episodes before 2024.
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