Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) is right that Stranger Things should kill more people
Gaten Matarazzo thinks Stranger Things "would be so much better if the stakes were much higher, like at any moment any of these kids can kick it. I feel like we’re all too safe.” Is he right?
By Dan Selcke
The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is now in production. When last we left our heroes, they were confronting an incursion of the twisted Upside Down dimension into their own reality, which eventually means they'll have to face the monstrous Vecna in a final showdown. Here in the home stretch, anything can happen; it's even possible some of our favorite characters could die.
That's been something the show has historically been loathe to do. Oh, characters die on Stranger Things, but not main characters; usually it's someone who was introduced earlier that same season, like Bob Newby in season 2 or Eddie Munson in season 4. Max's older brother Billy was introduced in the second season and died in the third, but he was mostly a jackass so his death wasn't that big a blow.
In the same episode where Billy dies, we'd led to think that police chief and Stranger Things mainstay Jim Hopper (David Harbour) has bitten the bullet, but he shows up in season 4, miraculously still alive with a whole new storyline to play out. Season 4 ends with young Max (Sadie Sink) in a coma, but she apparently didn't die at the hands of Vecna.
The show does not like killing off characters, and I'm not the only one who's noticed. Speaking on a panel with fellow Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard and Grace Van Dien this past weekend at Megacon in Orlando, star Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) was asked how he would change the show if he could. “It might sound messed up, but we should kill more people," he said, per CBR. "This show would be so much better if the stakes were much higher, like at any moment any of these kids can kick it. I feel like we’re all too safe.”
I like Stranger Things and am looking forward to the final season, but I think part of the illusion was shattered for me when Hopper survived season 3 after what was very clearly telegraphed as a death scene. I think that was the moment I realized the show wasn't willing to kill any of our main good guy characters, which let the air of the tire a little bit.
That said, all bets could be off in season 5. This is the end, sot here's no need to keep these characters around for another season; anyone's number could be up. Might that restore some tension to the show? We'll find out when Stranger Things season 5 premieres on Netflix, most likely sometime in 2025.
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h/t Collider