It's been several months since Stranger Things season 5 brought the Netflix series to a close, leaving very few casualties in its wake (though whether Eleven survives is still up to interpretation). The final outing did feature a few moments that had fans holding their breath for their favorites, however. And the Duffer Brothers have admitted that, with one character, they were absolutely just "f**king with" us.
Matt and Ross Duffer both unpacked Stranger Things' ending on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, reflecting on the finale now that it's further in the rearview mirror. They discussed the challenges of creating season 5, dug into the characters' arcs and the show's epilogue, and recalled the death scare they couldn't resist: Steve Harrington's.
Watch Josh Horowitz's full interview with Matt and Ross Duffer below:
The Duffer Brothers couldn't resist Steve's death scare in Stranger Things season 5
Going into Stranger Things season 5, one of the biggest questions fans had was whether Steve Harrington would live or die. Being a mentor figure for the show's younger cast, and having seen his redemption arc through to the end, Joe Keery's character felt like a strong contender if anyone was going to perish. This left fans fearing his fate in the finale. The Duffer Brothers were all too happy to lean into that. It's why they filmed him nearly plummeting to his death from a radio tower in the Upside Down.
As the Hawkins gang brought the Upside Down and the Abyss crashing together, they faced some turbulence on the tower. It led to Steve nearly being pushed off, a heart-stopping moment for Dustin, but one that gave Jonathan a chance to save the day. The Duffers even did reshoots to ensure this was exactly the way they wanted. It's clear they knew this would ramp up the tensions from the beginning of "The Rightside Up."
"We did a half day of reshoots, which we've actually never done on Stranger Things before," Ross admitted. "It was just little, tiny miscellaneous things that we wanted to do, but the main reason we wanted to go back is because Steve's near-death just wasn't…it wasn't shot like that in a slow-motion way. It all happened really fast."
He also revealed that they "milked it even more in the edit," a hilarious revelation demonstrating how aware of the fans' fears they were. There's no denying that most of us breathed a sigh of relief after realizing Steve was safe, so they were onto something with this inclusion. Matt added that it wasn't something they'd typically consider, but it felt right for the gang's last hurrah.
"I don't know that we normally would have done him almost falling off the tower," he said. "That was us f**king with the audience for sure. Which, we don't normally do, but I was like, 'This is a golden opportunity that we can't pass up.'"
It worked well in the final shot, so we can't be too mad about the Duffer Brothers trolling us. If they wanted fans on edge, taking aim at Steve Harrington was the way to make that happen. On the bright side, he got his happy ending after it all.
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