Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for the Stranger Things series finale!The Duffer brothers revealed why the fate of Steve, Nancy and Jonathan in the Stranger Things finals were “organic.“The last episode of Stranger Things gave the trio a definitive ending: Steve became a little league coach and sex-ed teacher, Jonathan became a film student, and Nancy worked as a reporter, all in different parts of the country.
Talk with Netflix About the last episode, the Duffer Brothers explained how Steve, Nancy and Jonathan’s endings in Stranger Things made sense for their characters. The couple always knew Steve would stay in Hawkins, while Nancy’s journalistic work in Boston emphasizes her independence. As for Jonathan, his film at NYU was somewhat inspired by their own film school experiences:
Matt Duffer: It felt very organic to us. It always made sense to us that Steve would choose to stay in Hawkins. He just feels like this kid you grew up with ends up staying in his hometown and he would work with kids. This is something we have found he is very good at. We love the idea of him teaching and coaching. He doesn’t have any children, but as we’ve hinted, it’s imminent, I think.
Ross Duffer: And then for Nancy, we never want her to take the obvious path. Even in Season 1, when she’s following the trajectory of all those suburban girls, Nancy’s obviously shown to be a lot more independent than that, which is one of the reasons she and Jonathan aren’t together in the end. She’s still trying to find herself and figure out what she wants from the world, which is why we wanted to give her that ending. For Robin, Smith College was a suggestion from Maya. And then Jonathan at NYU, we established that he’s wanted to go to NYU for a very long time. This goes back to season 1. So it was nice to see him finally realize his dream.
Matt Duffer: The teenagers called us the day before filming this scene. I think Charlie, in particular, wanted more details about what he was doing at NYU, so we all worked together to come up with this film idea. Even that day we continued to explain what this movie was. The film we made at the university film school wasn’t an anti-capitalist film, but it was a cannibalistic film about a shapeshifting cannibal, so that was the idea behind it.
Even though the trio, present since season 1, left for their own adventures, they always remained in contact with each other. This includes Robin, who had a guest stint on WSQK, “The Squawk”, earlier in the epilogue. The trio ends up planning to meet once a month at Robin’s uncle’s house in Kentucky to catch up.
As for the fate of each of the characters in Stranger Thingsthe Duffers point out how much sense each person’s storyline makes. For Steve, it seemed clear that he would always stay in Hawkins, given his ability to connect with children. This is especially evident in his friendship with Dustin, who was the catalyst for his destiny.
Nancy, on the other hand, is more surprising. Since season 4, she has wanted to go to Emerson College and hone her skills as a journalist. However, now that she has a job in an organization, she seems more satisfied than when she was in school. This highlights her independence after her breakup with Jonathan, taking the future into her own hands.
As for Jonathan, his anti-capitalist cinema seems to align with some of what the Duffer brothers themselves experienced while studying at film school. The episode even contains a tongue-in-cheek reference to their cannibal movie, where someone asks Jonathan if that’s what he’s making his movie about. His destiny seems to be the one that comes closest to the real life of creators at school.
With the fate of the trio, Stranger Things correctly built them up to where they are throughout their stories in the series. Although they each eventually become independent, they still have an essential, indissoluble bond with each other that will remain despite so many of Hawkins’ departures. This gives them all a happy ending as their lives continue in various ways.
- Release date
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2016 – 00/00/2025
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
- Directors
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Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Antal Nimród, Uta Briesewitz
- Writers
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Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
