After nine years of fan theories scanning every frame and line of dialogue for background clues and Dungeons & Dragons references, Stranger Things will finally have a cathartic conclusion this New Year's Eve. Hopefully, all of our questions will be answered.
Season 1, being the genesis of the series, was dissected for every thread of the mystery that the Duffer brothers had woven into their supernatural sci-fi epic. However, what some fan theorists may not realize, or perhaps might be disappointed by, is that Matt and Ross Duffer didn't start planning out the show's overarching mythology until season 2.
"Season 1, to be honest, we were just shocked that we had a show. We had no thought in our minds that it was going to be ongoing," Ross admitted to Deadline. "The minute we started working on Season 2 is when we started talking about more of a sentient being behind all of this."
One of the biggest questions about the show is how Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) survived in the Upside Down for as long as he did. Where was Vecna (aka Henry Creel, aka One) during all of this? The first five minutes of season 5, which were recently released on YouTube, offer a glimpse of the whole horrifying affair. In case you're saving yourself for the premiere, I won't mention the specifics. Or if you want to see for yourself, you can watch below:
Does it matter that every Stranger Things secret wasn't planned from the start?
The takeaway is that the Duffer brothers felt like they had to go back and address some loose ends left untied. Even Schnapp himself hadn't known the whole story until he sat down to read the script for the final season. In a sense, it was eye-opening for him to see what really happened to the scared boy he's been portraying for nine years. Everything's making more sense, and it no doubt gave fuel for an incredible performance we're about to see in season 5.
“The first five minutes was so gratifying for me,” Schnapp told Deadline. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I finally know what happened,’ but it’s helpful, honestly, to play and perform.”
Is it bad that there wasn't a plan from the start? Not necessarily. Like Ross mentioned, they were just happy to have a show. Of course, there's a popular opinion that Stranger Things should have stopped at season 1, and yet, we're still happy to have another entertaining season whenever it comes out. We keep coming back to see these characters grow and change in spite of the horrors they face. The mystery, albeit in an unpredictable flux at times, kept us on our toes, wondering. Like a long book written by an author from the seat of his pants, Stranger Things managed to build upon each new idea with some sense of consistency. Writing is always collaborative and malleable.
Some fan theorists may feel like their work is wasted, but that isn't quite true either. Part of theorizing isn't just figuring out what's happened, but predicting what might happen or hasn't been written yet. The Duffer brothers style, supernatural sci-fi tropes, and D&D tie-ins all offered clues to where Stranger Things could have gone. But in the end, we still want to be surprised.
I will say, the one theory I felt let down by was when Vecna revealed himself to be the true Mindflayer, instead of the Mindflayer being an eldritch god from another dimension. That aside, Vecna is still an awesome villain I can't wait to see more of in season 5.
The first four episodes of Stranger Things premiere on November 26th. The next three come on December 25th, and it all concludes with the series finale on New Year's Eve. All episodes release at 5:00 p.m. PT / 8:00 p.m. ET.