With their two-page correspondence and potential legal action to follow, Netflix have linked arms and attorney arsenals with Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount (their rivals to buy WBD), and the still Bob Iger-run Disney to stop the user created content that has been bastardizing their top shows, films and other moneymakers. While Amazon, Apple, Sony and Comcast-owned Universal have yet to join the party, it is clear now with the Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters-led Netflix in the C&D house, this is serious stuff.
How serious?
Well, Netflix litigation chief Mindy LeMoine isn’t making as personal as WBD’s Wayne M. Smith did earlier Tuesday with his predecessor and now ByteDance Global General Counsel John Rogovin. Then again, LeMoine does cut to the chase with very specific citations:
“Current forensic evidence indicates that Seedance is being used to generate unauthorized derivative works including, but not limited to:
● Bridgerton: Unauthorized depictions of Season 4 content, specifically featuring characters in a masquerade ball setting. These outputs mirror specific, narratively important costumes like Sophie Baek’s “Lady in Silver” gown. ByteDance has even promoted this content using #Bridgerton tags via its own official social media channels, such as @BytePlusGlobal.
● Stranger Things: High-fidelity reboots of the series finale, which feature detailed reproductions of the iconic cast as well as the monsters from the series, including Demogorgons and the Mindflayer.
● Squid Game: Seedance has generated recreations of the “Red Light, Green Light” sets and the iconic Young-hee doll. These include unauthorized crossovers, such as inserting real-world figures like Elon Musk into the Squid Game environment.
● KPop Demon Hunters: Seedance has reproduced the specific visual style and character designs from our animated musical feature, including the lead character Rumi.”
‘KPop Demon Hunters’
Netflix
The C&D letter goes on to state: “Netflix has never authorized ByteDance to use our content to generate these images or videos. ByteDance’s activities are willful, and constitute direct and secondary copyright infringement. The use of copyrighted works to create a competing commercial product, especially one that regurgitates the original, is not protected by fair use.”
“To avoid immediate litigation, Netflix demands that ByteDance:
1. Cease Generative Output: Immediately implement technological guardrails to prevent Seedance from generating any content that resembles Netflix’s protected characters, titles, or settings.
2. Remove Infringing Content: Remove all unlawfully obtained Netflix-owned content from training datasets, and also scrub all existing Seedance-generated videos featuring Netflix IP from all ByteDance-controlled platforms.
3. Identify All Infringements: Provide an accounting of all instances where Seedance has generated content based on prompts related to Netflix’s IP.
4. Revoke Third-Party Access: Revoke access for any commercial partners or API users currently utilizing Seedance to generate unauthorized Netflix derivative works.”
So, as Netflix awaits ByteDance’s response later this week, will it be Amazon, Apple, Sony or Universal sending the next letter? Stay tuned.
Getting married on Valentine’s Day is just good strat. You’re never going to forget the date, and it cuts your present budget in half. Are dinner reservations more scarce and more expensive? Perhaps. But marriage is also about the hard times. Maya Hawke wed musician Christian Lee Hutson on V-Day 2026. The couple made their official debut attending Sadie Sink’s John Proctor Is the Villainin April 2025, so it makes sense that Sink and a whole host of the Stranger Thingscrew attended the wedding. Per Page Six, Sink, Finn Wolfhard, Joe Keery, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, and Natalie Dyer all came to St. George’s Episcopal Church in New York City for the nuptials. Hawke’s famous parents, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, were also in attendance. Hawke walked Hawke down the aisle, no less.
Hutson and Hawke have been linked romantically and musically since 2023. Hutson has released three albums on Anti-, co-produced by Phoebe Bridgers. His most recent album, Paradise Pop. 10,” features vox from Hawke. Hutson also worked on Hawke’s two most recent albums, Moss and Chaos Angel. “Christian has been so encouraging to me as a musician, helping me to make the transition from a being a poet in a band to sort of being a musician,” Hawke told Varietyin 2024. “That’s how I knew that Christian would wind up as the album’s co-producer.” Now is is also the co-producer of their shared life.
The 24-year-old voices the title character in Sony Pictures Animation’s latest film, furthering the highly impressive streak they’ve been on with the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse trilogy and the Oscar-nominated KPop Demon Hunters. The literal goat in question is Will Harris, whose dreams of playing professional roarball are dampened by his undersized frame. The game is a version of basketball in which robust animals play hoops within their unique biomes. One day, Will goes viral after embarrassing ROAR league MVP, Mane Attraction (Aaron Pierre), during a streetball challenge, prompting his favorite team, the Vineland Thorns, to sign him to a season-ending contract in a desperate attempt to juice ticket sales.
McLaughlin is no stranger to underdog stories that are produced by NBA greats. He previously played LeBron James’ best friend and former teammate, Dru Joyce III, in the James-produced Shooting Stars (2023), which chronicled the NBA superstar’s decorated high school basketball team in Akron, Ohio. The Tyree Dillihay-directed GOAT also counts James’ fellow NBA icon and Olympic teammate, Stephen Curry, as a producer and voice actor.
These fictional underdog stories remind McLaughlin of one of his own formative experiences where he and another child actor were accidentally double-booked to play the same role in a movie. McLaughlin was subsequently asked to serve as a dancer instead of an actor, and while he held his head up high in the moment, the emotion and humiliation he felt that day only fueled him going forward.
“I remember going to the bathroom and crying. I said to myself, ‘I don’t want to ever feel like this again. I’m not going to let it happen,’” McLaughlin tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of GOAT‘s Feb. 13 theatrical release. “There was growth in that moment. I got stronger and I got better because of that underdog situation.”
Of course, the tears he shed that day would soon be replaced by the elation of landing an integral role on what would become the most popular streaming series of all time in Stranger Things. McLaughlin recently joined co-stars Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo on SNL to poke fun at a viral fan theory that emerged following the Dec. 31 series finale. Dubbed “Conformity Gate,” fans speculated that the final episode’s 35-minute epilogue was really just an illusion created by the mind-controlling big bad, Vecna, paving the way for the real finale the following week. However, it was all a grand case of apophenia, as humans have a tendency to create patterns out of disparate points.
Initially, McLaughlin thought the theory was short-sighted. But he’s since come to the conclusion that Stranger Things fans were coping with the loss of the beloved show in the same way that the characters were coping with the loss of their dear friend, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), by adopting the far-fetched belief that there’s more to the story. In reality, McLaughlin — like his frequent scene partner, Sadie Sink — is convinced that “El” is dead and gone.
“At first, I thought the ‘Conformity Gate’ theory was dumb. I get that people want to live in this optimistic place of, ‘Oh, we want more StrangerThings,’ but I was like, ‘Guys, it’s over. It’s been ten years,’” McLaughlin says. “I think people missed the concept of what the show is when they were like, ‘Oh, there’s going to be more.’ No, that’s just Mike’s imagination. That’s who he’s always been, even in season one. It’s all just storytelling.”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, McLaughlin also discusses how he shot Stranger Things 5 without knowing that his co-star David Harbour was also a part of GOAT’s decorated voice cast.
***
GOAT is your first project in a post-Stranger Things world. How are you feeling as you head into this new era?
I’m loving it. I appreciate my past, and it’s projected me to where I am today. So I’m really happy that I’m starting off the new year, and life after Stranger Things, with GOAT.
Will (Caleb McLaughlin) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Picture Animation’s Goat.
Sony Pictures
Did you record your goat character named Will during your downtime on Stranger Things 5?
Yeah, I filmed Stranger Things and recorded GOAT at the same time. I would go in to record whenever I had days off; I also went in during some weekends as well. The cool thing about doing animation and voiceovers is that it’s very flexible. Regardless of where you are in the world, you can get it done. [Vocal] booths pretty much anywhere. My last recording session was actually in London during the StrangerThings 5 press tour, so it took about two years to finish.
Your Stranger Things castmate David Harbour also has a role in GOAT. Did you ever bump into each other at an Atlanta-area recording studio and realize you were castmates on two projects at the same time?
I actually didn’t even know he was cast as [Will’s rhinoceros teammate] Archie till the [middle] of 2025. We worked with each other on all of Stranger Things 5 without knowing we were both on another project at the same time. No one told me because of behind-the-scenes things and contracts and just wanting to keep the project under wraps. So he couldn’t really say anything while we were working together throughout 2024, and I also couldn’t tell anyone that I was doing GOAT.
Will (Caleb McLaughlin) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Picture Animation’s GOAT.
Sony Pictures
Do you perform your voiceover lines differently than you would in live-action? Are you supposed to add more inflection and whatnot?
Most definitely. I’m used to expressing my character through my physicality and my facial expressions, but with this character, I had to hone in on his personality through his voice and his tone. So I had to compensate for what I usually do with my voice, and I knew that the animation was going to be able to deliver who the character is through the mannerisms they wanted for Will. But, as the actor, I had to make sure that every question and every statement is heard in a more exaggerated way than I’ve ever had to do on Stranger Things or anything else.
Basketball has been a through-line in your career thus far. You played a basketball player in High Flying Bird, Shooting Stars, Stranger Things and now GOAT. You gravitated toward the arts when you were rather young, but did you ever have a chance to play organized ball?
I played organized ball in my hometown before I started my acting career. But once it started, I was only able to partake in games with friends or even just by myself. Most of the time, I’d play by myself, but I still try to play when I can.
Will (Caleb McLaughlin) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s GOAT.
Sony Pictures
To be accurate, GOAT revolves around a variation of basketball called roarball. It’s played by animals within their specific ecosystems. Will has had a lifelong dream of playing professional roarball, and it’s scoffed at because he’s undersized, much like your character of Dru Joyce III in Shooting Stars. When was the last time you lived your own underdog story à la Will and Dru?
I have moments like that, and they always motivate me to get better at what I’m doing. I’m always trying to prove to myself that I can be better than I was before. But an underdog moment that sticks out to me is when I auditioned for this movie as a kid. It ultimately came out, but they ended up taking out the scene I auditioned for at the time. I went out for this kid who was getting a pretzel at this pretzel stand or whatever, and I ended up getting the role. The audition process involved the lines and dancing; you had to know how to dance.
I then got the call that I landed the role. Let’s say the kid’s name was Gerald. I was eventually sitting in my dressing room, and then another kid walked into the same dressing room. It was a big dressing room. And I was like, “Oh, what are you doing here?” And he was like, “I got Gerald.” And I was like, “No, I’m Gerald.” The PA then came in and said, “Gerald?” And we both raised our hands. Then the PA was like, “Both of you guys can’t be Gerald.” So he looked at the call sheet and then he said to me, “Oh, he’s Gerald, and you’re … One second, I have to figure out what your role is. ” And I was like, “What the heck!?”
I then sat there for hours while the other kid was filming, and then they finally called me in. The director was like, “I’m so sorry I had you sitting there. We’re going to figure out how to put you in.” And then he was like, “Actually, I know what we need to do. Do the thing. Dance.” And I was like, “Whoa!” So I ended up dancing and pop-locking, but that was all I was called in to do.
Afterwards, I remember going to the bathroom and crying and being like, “No, I came here for acting. I didn’t want to just dance.” Dancing is a part of my upbringing and my art. But I wanted to be an actor, and I felt like my acting was being put on the back burner. So I did feel like an underdog at that moment, and I said to myself, “I don’t want to ever feel like this again. I’m not going to let it happen.” There was growth in that moment. I got stronger and I got better because of that underdog situation.
I honestly didn’t know until recently that you’re quite the dancer and acrobat. You actually remind me of Tom Holland in that you both can do these crazy spins and flips on flat ground. (They both performed on Lip Sync Battle as well.) Were you ever able to incorporate that skill during stunts on the show?
Not at all, actually. I wouldn’t say I did anything on the show where I was really utilizing that [acrobatic] skillI. I did some stunts in season one. I did the stunt where Eleven throws Lucas back with her powers. We also rode bikes, and I did a fighting scene in season four. Then there’s the scene where I’m running through the hospital with Sadie [Sink]. There was so much development in Lucas from previous seasons, and the challenge of the final season was to bring all of those past experiences into his current mindset.
LeBron James produced Shooting Stars since it was based on his high school basketball team. Stephen Curry is a producer and voice actor on GOAT. Are you going to plead the Fifth if I ask you who the GOAT is between the two of them?
(Laughs.) I love both of them. LeBron is the greatest of all time, and the stats show it, right? Stephen Curry is a different player. He is actually in a lane unto himself. LeBron, you compare him to Jordan and Kobe. You can compare Steph to all the greatest point guards of all time, but Steph is in a lane of his own. He changed the game. He’s brought a new perspective to the game that no one has ever seen. He’s created his own timeline in his own multiverse. He broke the timeline of what it means to be a basketball player.
I personally enjoy watching both of them, but Stephen Curry was someone I leaned toward growing up. I love his playing style because I’m not the tallest guy on the court. I’m average height. But LeBron can play all five positions, and no one else can do that. Steph can’t do that, but Steph is whom I relate to the most. [Writer’s Note: McLaughlin’s character was partially inspired by Kobe Bryant during his high school days.]
Who’s your GOAT in the entertainment industry?
It changes because depending on where I’m at in my life, but Donald Glover is probably my GOAT right now. He can do everything: acting, music, writing, directing. He can do it all, and no one else has been able to do it at his level. So it’s very admirable and inspiring.
You got to work on SNL recently. What caught your attention about their process behind the scenes?
What surprised me the most is how it feels like Broadway. It’s live and ongoing. There’s no stopping. If you mess up, you keep going. People don’t realize how smart you have to be to be funny in sketch comedy. The ideas are always changing, and these people work hard all week until the last second. They’ll even come up with concepts on the day, and it just reminded me of when I was performing on Broadway.
You, Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo had some fun with the “Conformity Gate” fan theory in front of the waterfalls. Was that a last-minute addition once that theory went viral?
To be honest with you, I have no idea. Finn reached out and said, “Can you come in the day before the show?” And I was like, “Sure.” I was going to fly out to see his SNL episode regardless because he asked all of us to come and support him, but they asked me to fly out earlier so that I could be a part of the segment. So I was like, “Yeah, I’m down. Just let me know what I need to do. ” But I couldn’t even tell you what the timing of it was because I was told all of these things at the last minute.
What was your first reaction to that theory taking off?
At first, I thought the “Conformity Gate” theory was dumb. I get that people want to live in this optimistic place of, “Oh, we want more StrangerThings,” but the show is done, guys. I was like, “Guys, it’s over. It’s been ten years. We were full-on kids and now we’re full-on adults, and we don’t need any more of us.”
The Duffers, our wonderful, amazing creators, wanted to leave everybody with this level of optimism that the show has always given everyone. So if they left the show without that, we would have left StrangerThings without the true essence of what we’ve been representing forever.
We started off season one playing Dungeons & Dragons, and we ended just like that. And Mike’s storytelling and writing ability [that’s rooted in D&D] is how the show should have ended. I think people missed the concept of what the show is when they were like “Oh, there’s going to be more.” No, that’s just Mike’s imagination. That’s who he’s always been, even in season one. It’s all just storytelling.
Sadie Sink believes that Eleven is dead and that Mike just created a story as a coping mechanism. It sounds like you’re of the same mind as her and that you don’t think El is living in some Icelandic cave.
Yeah, she’s gone. I’m so sorry. I think she evaporated.
Sadie Sink’s Max and Caleb McLaughlin’s Lucas in Stranger Things 5.
Courtesy of Netflix
You played a teenager for a decade, but you were still growing up in between seasons. Are you glad that you can now be a 24-year-old and not have to worry about whether you look 17 anymore?
I mean, I will continue to play younger roles for as long as I look young. Right now, I do look pretty mature and older because of my hair style and how I’m presenting myself. But I’ve never had a problem with playing younger. I also had the freedom to be myself when I wasn’t filming. So it’s not something where I was like, “Oh, I’m so happy this is all over.” It was my childhood. It was like my high school and college experience. But all good things must come to an end, and it’s amazing the journey that I went through with these guys. I’ll never regret it. I’d do it all over again if I could.
I think some of the fans would’ve cryogenically frozen you and your castmates between seasons if they could have.
I know! (Laughs.)
I just always found the aging critique to be odd since it’s a show that asks you to believe in demogorgons and a mind flayer. Suspending disbelief about adolescent aging should be easy compared to that.
Thank you for saying that. It’s so interesting because Joe Keery was older in season one than we were in season five. We weren’t even his age by the time we finished the show. He’s 33 now, and he played a teenager for how long? There’s a lot of people that are 30 and still play 17. So people just got so caught up in how young we looked in season one and didn’t realize that people age [off-camera].
Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin and Finn Wolfhard in Stranger Things season one.
Everett Collection
Your Stranger Things director-producer Shawn Levy now has the keys to the MCU and Star Wars. How much campaigning did you guys do around him?
Deadpool & Wolverine was done by the time he came on set [in 2024], so we all saw the finishing touches.
But you knew he was doing Star Wars?
Yeah, but I’m not that person. Unless he brings it up, I’m not going to talk about it. I might say, “Hey, how’s it going filming StarWars?” But I’m not a person that really asks many questions depending on the scenario. I’m sorry, but I also haven’t watched StarWars, so I didn’t really have much to ask.
What do you mean you haven’t watched StarWars?
(Laughs.) I know. I’ve only watched the one with John Boyega.
He made three of them, so The Force Awakens?
Yeah, I only saw the first one. I haven’t seen all of them. So I didn’t even know what to ask Shawn, but I did ask a lot about Deadpool because I love Marvel.
Are you not into space fantasy?
No, I just haven’t gotten around to a lot of classic movies yet. My very first time watching The Lord of the Rings was last year, and I’m not proud of this. This is not a flex. I also dislike it when people are like, “Oh, I’ve never seen that,” so I’m not trying to be that person. But I really just haven’t got around to Star Wars, and I’m getting around to it.
Were movies not a big part of your household?
I have a big family that loves movies, but we’re not movie buffs. We still love watching movies and going to see a movie together as a family. The classics just weren’t forced upon us. They were never like, “You have to see this. ” My parents introduced me to Roots, Crooklyn and TheMatrix. My dad introduced me to a lot of action films; he loves Ip Man. So we just had our own vibe.
Your future is wide open now. If you could green light something for yourself, what would you choose?
I would just love to be in Marvel. I need to call Shawn up and say, “Hey, man, please put a good word in for me.”
One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 hit Netflix earlier this week, and as it’s become clear that there’s no secret ninth episode coming—as intense internet speculation had suggested—disappointed fans have instead turned to scrutinizing the documentary for answers, clarity, and fuel for more speculation. And, well, “Conformity Gate” can step aside, because “ChatGPT Gate” is the hot new topic.
The controversy comes because eagle-eyed viewers spotted what appear to be ChatGPT tabs visible on a computer being used by one of the Duffer Brothers. As part of One Last Adventure‘s behind-the-scenes access, viewers see what it was like in the Stranger Things writers’ room as the team, including the Duffers, frantically tries to complete the script for episode eight, “The Rightside Up,” under pressure from Netflix and the show’s production team.
Speaking to One Last Adventure director Martina Radwan, the Hollywood Reporter asked outright if she ever saw generative AI being used by the show’s writers. Her first response: “I mean, are we even sure they had ChatGPT open?”
She then added, “Well, there’s a lot of chatter where [social media users] are like, ‘We don’t really know, but we’re assuming.’ But to me it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?”
(The answer is no, but we digress.)
However, there’s a difference between “research” and “writing a script,” which Radwan pointed out. “How can you possibly write a storyline with 19 characters and use ChatGPT, I don’t even understand.”
She continued. “Again, first of all, nobody has actually proved that it was open. That’s like having your iPhone next to your computer while you’re writing a story. We just use these tools … while multitasking. So there’s a lot going on all the time, every time. What I find heartbreaking is everybody loves the show, and suddenly we need to pick it apart.”
Radwan—who spent a full year enmeshed in Stranger Things—confirmed that she never saw generative AI being used unethically by the show’s writers.
“No, of course not. I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation. People think ‘writers room’ means people are sitting there writing. No, it’s a creative exchange. It’s story development,” she said, “and, of course, you go places in your creative mind and then you come back [to the script]. I think being in the writers room is such a privilege and such a gift to be able to witness that.”
Radwan addressed a few other eyebrow-raising scenes captured in One Last Adventure and also responded to “Conformity Gate,” so definitely head to THR to read the whole piece.
io9 reached out to Netflix for comment or clarity on whether or not that’s actually ChatGPT viewers have spotted in the documentary, as well as the allegations that generative AI was used as part of the Stranger Things writing process. We will update this post should we hear back.
The finale of Stranger Things Season 5 aired last week, but fans still believe that a secret, bonus episode is coming. A recent report, though, has thrown water on those thoughts.
According to a new report from THR, Stranger Things Season 5 ended with its eighth episode, “Chapter 8: The Rightside Up,” which aired on Netflix on New Year’s Eve. The report notes that there is no secret, ninth episode of the show, and in a previous interview with THR, creators Matt and Ross Duffer expressed their view of this era of the cast definitively ending with it.
“Mike’s [Finn Wolfhard] closing the basement door. We’re closing the door on the story. That’s one reason we had the closing credits the way we did, because it was a way of saying: ‘This is finite. This is the end of their story. It’s the end of the story of Mike and Eleven and Joyce [Winona Ryder] and Hopper,’” said Matt Duffer. “So, no, there’s no plan or intention to [revisit] the story because it’s a coming-of age story. Ultimately, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the show always was. When he closes the door to the basement, he’s closing the door on his childhood and he’s moving onto adulthood.”
Why do fans believe a Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 9 is coming?
Stranger Things is no stranger (no pun intended) to the world of fan conspiracies. However, things went even further this past week, when fans began theorizing that Stranger Things hadn’t actually ended with the eighth episode of Season 5. According to the theory, dubbed “Conformity Gate” by fans online, the series finale was actually a red herring of an ending, which is theorized to be Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) tricking the children with a fake world.
The “real” ending, according to the theory, was set to be released in surprise fashion on January 7, a week from the fake finale’s release. However, no such episode has released, and it doesn’t seem likely that one will, either. The main cause for the theory, largely, seems to be that fans were unhappy with some of the ways the show wrapped up in its final season.
“Stranger Things” fans who believe a viral conspiracy theory that there is a secret ninth episode of the Netflix series dropping on Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. ET will have their post-series-finale hopes shattered — because there isn’t one.
The theory, colloquially known across social media as “Conformity Gate,” is that the Duffers have another episode of the show still to come, one that would undo certain plot points from the series finale, including a reveal that Vecna/Henry (Jamie Campbell Bower) did not actually die and was controlling what viewers had seen as as the ending in a fourth-wall-breaking experience.
Across social media, the theory gained steam on TikTok in particular, as well as Reddit and other platforms, where fans shared posts and videos including what they deemed to be hints that things were off in-universe in Episode 8, “The Right Side Up,” which launched as the much-heralded and well-promoted series finale Dec. 31 on Netflix.
Among the purported “evidence” for the theory is everything from wardrobe choices (the graduation gowns were orange, when the Hawkins High colors are green and yellow, and many extras were seen wearing glasses similar to the kind worn by Henry/Vecna). They also point to set design changes: a doorknob in the Wheelers’ basement appears to be on the opposite side of the door in the finale, and a dial at the WSQK radio station had changed colors between episodes.
Eagle-eyed viewers even found an instance in the series finale where a stack of cassette tapes featured in an epilogue scene were seemingly arranged to spell out “U DID NOT STOP ME” in Morse code.
The idea that the episode was going to surprise drop on Jan. 7 was sparked by a video shared by the “Stranger Things” official TikTok page that featured Hawkins science teacher Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens) standing in front of a clock that is set to 1:07. The Conformity Gate crowd took that to mean the surprise Episode 9 would be released Jan. 7, and that the timing for launch would be 8 p.m. ET — the same time that Volumes 1 and 2 dropped.
All of this has fueled the larger fan theory of Conformity Gate, which gets its name from the idea that Henry/Vecna was not defeated by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Will (Noah Schnapp), Joyce (Winona Ryder), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and the gang, and that the Hawkins crew is stuck under Vecna’s mind control, “conforming” to false memories and an ending that he has created for them — and for viewers.
The final season of “Stranger Things” has been beset by conspiracy-minded thinking. After the release of Volume 2 on Christmas Day, a segment of the fandom began believing the episodes had been “tampered with,” and a Google doc created by fans detailing scenes that had allegedly been cut was widely shared across social media. A Change.org petition demanding the release of the “unseen footage” now has more than 390,000 signatures. In an interview with the Duffers on Jan. 1 about the series finale, they definitively shut down this disinformation, and Matt Duffer said about the Google doc, which they’d seen, “Obviously, that’s not a real thing.” Ross Duffer added, I don’t think there’s a single cut scene in the entire season.”
“The show has just grown so massive,” Matt Duffer said, speaking generally about the conspiracy-theory-addled segments of the show’s fandom. “Online, there’s just so much misinformation. Just tons of it. We would be here for hours trying to bat down the stuff that was not true.”
A group of Stranger Things fans are taking a page from the Snyder cut—or at least, wishing they could. In the week since the release of the eighth episode of Stranger Things 5, “The Rightside Up,” reactions have ranged from pure delight to utter disappointment. Some on the pessimistic side of the spectrum have come to believe the theory that a secret ninth episode would be released on January 7 that flips everything in the finale on its head. Well, that hasn’t happened and, obviously, is never going to happen.
As with many online theories, this is a deep rabbit hole, but here are the basics. Some fans believe that clues both in the final episode and beyond point to the entire episode being one big illusion perpetrated by Vecna to convince everyone that he lost, when he actually hasn’t yet. A new finale, called “Conformity Gate,” will then be released that magically makes everyone who watches it super happy with all the choices. Some of these clues range from the time on a clock in a social media post, everyone at graduation having their hands folded, the length of a YouTube clip, and much, much more. (Those are but a few examples, but a quick search of the hashtag “#ConformityGate” on any social media platform is a good place to continue if you so desire.)
And while some of the supposed clues do share similarities, such as references to the numbers “1” and “7” (the supposed date of release), logic really should take over here. Why would Netflix spend millions of dollars promoting a series finale being released on New Year’s Eve, put it in theaters, send its cast and crew out to talk about it, tout the viewership numbers, and release a behind-the-scenes documentary, only to undercut all that by releasing an unpromoted secret episode that was only discoverable by looking at TikTok clips? It literally doesn’t make one hint of sense.
Now, is it fun to think about a secret version of something we love being released out of nowhere? Sure. We love a good surprise ending as much as the next person. And, as referenced earlier, in some instances, fans have demanded alternate, unreleased versions of things—like the Snyder cut—get released, and it’s worked.
In reality though, much like Mike’s story about Eleven to his friends in the show’s closing moments, this is all just a coping mechanism. A way to put off the reality that Stranger Things ended how it ended, and everyone will just have to deal with it. All the clues and coincidences are exactly that.
However, just to be 100% sure, io9 reached out to Netflix about this theory, and we were directed to the Stranger Thingssocialbios, both of which currently read “ALL EPISODES OF STRANGER THINGS ARE NOW PLAYING.” Gate closed.
Stranger Things’ series finale continues to be a lightning rod for controversy. While plenty of people were fine with how the Netflix horror series wrapped up after a decade, there’s a loud subset of fans who are taking to the digital streets to tear it down, say awful things about the people who worked on it, and declare it the next Game of Thrones-level failure. Another fraction of that group, however, is holding onto a bizarre sliver of hope with the belief that perhaps the disappointing conclusion is not all it seems. The movement, which is calling itself Conformity Gate, has gathered “evidence” indicating that the events depicted in the finale are actually an illusion and that there is still a battle left to fight, which will play out in a secret episode that’s not available on Netflix right now.
Obviously, we’ll be discussing the fifth season of Stranger Things here, so if you want to stay spoiler free, you should leave now. (Really, you probably shouldn’t have opened this article to begin with.) But the tl;dr of the theory is that the sterile and rushed nature of the finale is an intentional creative choice meant to reflect that it takes place in a distorted reality created by Vecna and everyone in the show is “conforming” to it.
Admittedly, I fully planned to just roll my eyes at all this pretty wild speculation because I lived through the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy and the Indoctrination Theory, which fans believed explained that game’s finale as a hallucination but was really just a way for them to cope with not liking the way things turned out. But, I don’t know, there’s some compelling evidence in the theory, both based on what’s in the show and on how Netflix and show creators the Duffer Brothers have talked about it since.
Many of these details are subtle, such as the way that characters sit during the graduation scene resembling how villain Vecna sits at other points in the series, whereas others seem to be pretty overt, like Max calling out Mike’s D&D epilogue for being too comforting, as if something is off. Here’s one of the quicker rundowns I could find, by @meechski on TikTok, but you can also find much lengthier breakdowns on YouTube.
Also, as someone in the comments of that video points out, if you search “conformity gate” or “fake ending” on Netflix, Stranger Things is the only search result for the latter, and one of two for the former alongside Emily in Paris. Make of that what you will.
I don’t know that any one thing made me a full-blown believer, but taken all together, it was enough for me to at least become interested in seeing if it actually pans out. Conspiracy theories usually have at least some shred of plausibility that allows them to gain some traction, but they also tend to be made up of a lot of square pegs shoved into round holes. All these pieces of evidence could just be coincidences born of bad writing and desperation.
guys… notice how all of them are reading WHITE scripts when shawn levy confirmed the finale was printed on RED scripts… they are trying to confuse us with that trailer. i AM sure #confirmitygatepic.twitter.com/Pje0LF13dm
Luckily, we won’t really have to wait long for these hopes to be shattered, as the entire theory hinges on this hypothetical secret finale premiering on January 7, when Netflix is planning to announce something about its 2026 programming. Of course, I don’t want any Stranger Things fans to have to suffer a worse ending than the one they’d hoped for, but after witnessing the behavior of some members of the community in the wake of a disappointing finale, I’m also wondering if those who have said some truly heinous things about the people who worked on this show even deserve a better ending.
Just when you thought you’d left Hawkins for good, Netflix is here to haul you back. One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 is coming to the streamer January 12. The documentary will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the blockbusterfinal season.
A trailer arrived today, which gives a glimpse of what to expect: hugs, tears, sit-down interviews with the Duffer Brothers, a look at how some of the stunts and set pieces came together, a brief mention of “Eleven’s fate” and how that was decided, and… yes, a stirring reprise of the end credits song, “Heroes.”
“I’m endlessly grateful to the Duffer Brothers for trusting me with a front-row seat to this incredible journey,” said One Last Adventure‘s director, Martina Radwan, in a Netflix press release. “Spending a full year on set with them was a true privilege—and an absolute thrill. Being able to get close and watching them bring this beloved show to life in real time, was pure joy.”
Radwan also praised the open access she got from Stranger Things‘ cast and other crew: “From the cast to their long-time collaborators, everyone welcomed me with remarkable generosity, openly sharing their personal and collective experiences from a decade of creative filmmaking, always pushing the boundaries.”
The Duffers added, “Growing up in Durham, North Carolina, we dreamed of becoming filmmakers—but Hollywood felt impossibly far away. Everything changed when we watched the behind-the-scenes documentaries for The Lord of the Rings—on-the-ground films that showed the real nuts and bolts of how a massive production actually gets made. We saw how stressed Peter Jackson was and thought: yep, that’s the dream. With the decline of physical media, that kind of behind-the-scenes storytelling has largely disappeared. We wanted to bring it back. One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things Season 5—beautifully captured and directed by Martina Radwan—is our attempt to do just that. If you love Stranger Things, or if you’re simply curious how a major Hollywood production comes to life, this one’s for you.”
If the footage of the final table read doesn’t make you feel emotional, the Duffers calling “cut” on the very last shot just might. One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 will hit Netflix Monday, January 12, at 12 a.m. PT.
For better or worse, everyone’s been talking about the final season of Stranger Things, and its finale in particular. Reactions have been mixed across the board, but for creators Ross and Matt Duffer, things more or less ended as intended.
Leading up to the finale, fans made a petition convinced there was unseen footage held hostage by Netflix, or even a secret episode. But the brothers told Variety that no such interference or hidden episode exists, with Matt saying they’ve made the show “[we] wanted to make. […] There’s no interference or direction at all from Netflix. They are, and always have been, incredible, and they really trust us. That’s been true since season one.”
If the Duffers had their say, they’d just let Stranger Things speak for itself from now on. Unfortunately, they can’t: from Joyce and Hopper discovering their classmate was Vecna to Robin and Vickie still being together, their post-finale talk has partially been about why they didn’t touch on things in the final episode, or why they made the choices they did. With Vecna, for example, they basically wrote the season like the First Shadow musical laying out his origin just didn’t exist, since they didn’t want to confuse anyone who hadn’t watched the musical. But don’t worry, they’re “sure” Joyce and Hopper talked about their Vecna connection offscreen, which…is something, right?
Likewise, they’d like audiences to determine for themselves whether young Henry embraced his own darkness or was ultimately manipulated by the Mind Flayer. At one point, though, they were interested in putting him in what Ross Duffer called “a Darth Vader-type situation” where he’d have reneged on the Flayer. As explained in a Netflix Q&A, that idea was scrapped after they talked with the writers and Vecna’s actor Jamie Campbell Bower and settled on Vecna having to “justify everything he’s done with, ‘I chose this, and I believe in this still.’ Where Henry goes, it doesn’t matter because he chooses the side of the Mind Flayer at the end of the day.”
The idea of ambiguity is something the Duffers really want to push for several characters—even with Eleven, they said there was “never a version” of the ending where she’d live a normal life with the others, so Mike and everyone else has chosen to believe she’s alive in the other dimension rather than truly gone after sacrificing herself. And by having them believe in what could be a lie, “it was such a better way to end the story and represent the closure of this journey and their journey from children to adults,” continued Ross.
Obviously, some Stranger Things fans don’t think that onscreen coyness is actually intentional or even works in the finale’s favor. But until (or if) a sequel series happens, it’s on them to craft their own theories and fill any holes in the Duffers’ narrative that they see fit, or at least until the Duffers go and explain or rationalize something else from it.
Whether you loved or hated Stranger Things, one thing it’s done is get people listening to Prince again.
Per Variety, the late artist’s 1984 hits “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry” surged in global streams on Spotify by 243 percent and 200 percent, respectively. For the Gen Z demographic specifically, the two tunes were boosted by 577 percent for “Purple” and 128 percent for “Doves.” And they’re not the only ones: the outlet reported streams for Prince’s entire discography have shot up by 190 percent overall, with an 88 percent rise in Gen Z streams.
The Oscar-winning Purple Rain soundtrack album was highly regarded upon release and considered one of the greatest albums ever made, and neither of the two songs has been used in a TV show since Prince’s film of the same name.
Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer explained that he and his brother Matt “knew we needed an epic needle drop” once they decided a record would trigger a bomb during the climactic battle in the finale. And in Ross’ words, “There’s nothing really more epic than Prince.”
Matt Duffer credited the show’s big season four needle drop—Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” of course—as helping get the ball rolling with Prince’s estate. The brothers were told by music supervisor Nora Felder it’d be a “real long shot” to get approved. In a separate Variety interview, Felder revealed the brothers had approached her with the script and their aim: two songs from 1987 or earlier, from the same artist, with song one starting on the album’s A or B-side, and song two finishing on the album’s alternate side. And this was before the scene had even been shot.
“This is just me imagining it in my head — and it’s got to play through this big, emotional, sad scene,” Felder explained. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years, but there’s still always a first.” There was a classic artist she sent the Duffers (and whose name she’s withholding), but ultimately, they all decided to try getting the two Prince songs cleared. Getting the approval on the estate’s side was a “grueling” couple of weeks, with the green light coming just days before the shoot.
Numbers have shown Prince was the right choice and that the pursuit of those songs paid off—and Netflix knows it, hence putting “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain” as the second and third tracks on the show’s latest Spotify playlist.
The Stranger Things finale hit theaters on New Year’s Eve. Yet despite doing pretty good with that one-day release, it seems Netflix still isn’t a fan of the theatrical experience when it doesn’t need to be.
Because of the cast’s contractual terms for residuals, there aren’t box office numbers to report for screenings, but Deadline and other outlets reported the finale made $25 million-$30 million worth of concession cash in its 620 screenings across North America. That concession money technically means the episode beat out KPop Demon Hunters as Netflix’s highest theatrical owner for 2025. The finale is also a particular win for AMC, which didn’t screen KPop during that movie’s time(s) in theaters, but reported more than half of all Stranger Things fans watched it at an AMC theater.
You’d think this would be good news as the streamer’s looking to snatch up Warner Bros.—which had a pretty strong big screen run in 2025—and honor that studio’s policy of putting its movies in theaters, but sources speaking to Deadline claim Netflix is considering a 17-day window for any of its potential films. That’s less than half of the 45-day standard adhered to by WB and other Hollywood studios, and AMC and other theatrical chains would very much prefer that standard maintained. Exhibitors would also love for more theatrical runs from Netflix, with the Stranger finale working as a possible “olive branch” to help get that ball rolling.
But if that alleged 17-day window happens, it’d “steamroll” the movie theater business and be bad for everyone in general. At time of writing, Netflix hasn’t disclosed any moves it aims to make should it get to acquire WB, instead keeping to its stance in December that things will currently be business as usual. But common sense and the streamer’s own past will tell you that things will be anything but, and eventually, that other shoe will drop.
The main story of the sci-fi phenomenon has finally come to an end. However, there’s been one thing that’s been looming over Stranger Things fans’ heads as the Hawkins gang finally live their happily ever after. Is Eleven dead?
Eleven sacrifices herself to “end the cycle” of the government trying to experiment on mothers and their babies. She stands at the doorway of the Upside Down before Hopper (David Harbour) detonates a bomb to destroy the place once and for all. Before that, she contacts Mike (Finn Wolfhard) telepathically, who refuses to let her do it. She responds, “None of this will ever end if I’m still here.” She later says, “I need you to help them understand my choice.” In the last glimpses we see of Eleven, she shares one message to her boyfriend, “I will always be with you. I love you.”
In the final scenes of the beloved Netflix series, Mike, Dustin (Gaten Matazarro), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Max (Sadie Sink) play their Dungeons and Dragons campaign after graduating high school. Mike tells a story that could convince people that she’s still alive. In the campaign, he explains that Kali made an invisibility spell to make people believe she died in the bomb detonation. “She had to make everyone, including her friends, believe she was dead,” Mike says.
When Will asks if it was true, Mike responds, “No one will ever know, but I like to imagine she’s in a beautiful land.”
Did Eleven Really Die in Stranger Things?
We won’t get a definite answer since the Duffer Brothers purposefully made the ending “ambiguous” for the audience. Matt Duffer told Variety that the show is told from the point of view of Mike and his friends. “They don’t know, and the audience can’t know,” he clarified. “If you knew that she was out there and you knew she existed, then she’s very much at risk. So we thought there was something really cool about not knowing for sure and having our characters choose to believe.
It’s been a deliberate decision that’s been in the works for a while. “We just thought that was more powerful than providing a definitive answer, one way or the other,” he said. “And I like that the audiences are in Mike, Max, Lucas, and Dustin’s shoes, in the sense that they get to choose or not choose. I mean, I’m definitely seeing the majority choosing to believe and side with the kids.”
“If Eleven is out there, the most that they could hope for is a belief that it’s true because they can’t be in contact with her. Everything falls apart if that were the case. So if that’s the narrative, this is really the best way to keep her alive. And it’s about Mike and everyone finding a way to move past what’s happened,” Matt told Tudum.
“She lives on in their hearts, whether that’s real or not,” Ross Duffer told the site.
As for whether there was another version where Eleven was in the basement with the kids, the Duffer Brothers said that it was a hard no, saying that the character represented “the magic of childhood.” Matt told Variety, “We knew for our kids to be able to grow up, the magic had leave Hawkins. There was never a version that we had written where it was Eleven down in that basement. It was never going to be that simple and that easy. It was finding a way to come up with an ending where it was not that simple, but also bittersweet, and that there was hope there.”
Stranger Things 5bid goodbye to Eleven and all her friends this week. A lot of viewers, and prospective viewers, are wondering if Millie Bobby Brown’s signature character met her end in the popular Netflix series.
Well, the answer is complicated. It sure seems like Eleven died as she went down with the ship. (In this case, chose to stay behind in the Upside Down to make sure that the military could not use her blood to make more child experiments.) But, the final picture isn’t quite as black and white as that noble sacrifice would have you believe.
Vecna, and The Mind Flayer, have been thorns in the Hawkins kids’ sides for multiple seasons at this point. Stranger Things 5’s final episode, “The Rightside Up,” decides to ditch all the talking we’ve been doing in this final season of the show and get right to the fight. The kids managed to catch Vecna off guard long enough for Joyce buyers to deliver a final blow to the malignant force that’s been plaguing them. (With one really choice f-bomb in there for good measure!) However, that is not the end of this episode. Not really close when you think about it.
Kali, Eleven’s sister from earlier in the series, made it a point to stress that both super powered young ladies should remain behind in the Upside Down as it closes to make sure that their fate doesn’t befall anymore children. (Also, it’s worth noting that the same weird experiments created Vecna inadvertently. Probably smart to avoid that too.)
Eleven “dies,” but Mike doesn’t seem to think so…
After successfully defeating the big bad, the Hawkins kids try to make their escape back into their reality. But, Eleven decides to remain behind. What follows is a tearful farewell to Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and his piercing scream at Eleven disappearing was frankly hard to watch! Yet and still, when the gang is having their adorable little final D&D game before they leave their childhood behind, Mike still thinks Eleven is out there. For the creators of Stranger Things, they want you to believe too.
There was always going to be a frankly irresponsible amount of lore to unpack with the end of Stranger Things. Matt and Ross Duffer did their best to put a bow on lingering questions about this series in an interview with Tudum. This is always where the road was gonna end for Eleven, and really for the group at large.
Ross Duffer said, “There was never a version of the story where Eleven was hanging out with the gang at the end. For us and our writers, we didn’t want to take her powers away. She represents magic in a lot of ways and the magic of childhood. For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away.”
“We thought it would be beautiful if our characters continued to believe in that happier ending even if we didn’t give them a clear answer to whether that’s true or not,” he continued. “The fact that they’re believing in it, we just thought it was such a better way to end the story and a better way to represent the closure of this journey and their journey from children to adults.”
Stranger Things 5 keeps things open to interpretation
(Netflix)
The end of Stranger Things 5might feel a little cloudy for some viewers. But the Duffers want fans to embrace that ambivalence. There wasn’t any real way to give the kids a complete happy ending. The show does go as close to that line as possible in the final entry. Being that their tethers to childhood have been severed for good, Eleven lives on as a reminder of the magic from those years. In a satisfying way, similar to how all of the Hawkins kids will live on inside of the viewers watching at home.
“And the reality is, if Eleven is out there, the most that they could hope for is a belief that it’s true because they can’t be in contact with her. Everything falls apart if that were the case,” Ross Duffer observed. “So if that’s the narrative, this is really the best way to keep her alive. And it’s about Mike and everyone finding a way to move past what’s happened.”
Teresia Gray (She/Her) is a writer here at the Mary Sue. She’s been writing professionally since 2016, but felt the allure of a TV screen for her entire upbringing. As a sponge for Cable Television debate shows and a survivor of “Peak Thinkpiece,” she has interests across the entire geek spectrum. Want to know why that politician you saw on TV said that thing, and why it matters? She’s got it for you. Yes, mainlining that much news probably isn’t healthy. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes political news, breaking stories, and general analysis of current events.
A new year brings with it plenty of traditions, but one of the most threatening to our wallets each passing year is that, after months of relative peace and quiet, Lego just decides to put out tons of new sets every January 1. There are over 150 new sets hitting shelves today, so here’s our roundup of the biggest and best.
January is one of the most important release months for Lego, so it’s no surprise that we’re getting releases from practically every line the brick-builder makes sets for, from brands like Star Wars and Marvel to staples like the Architecture, Ideas, and Icons lines. There are plenty of heavy hitters all over, but of course, one big highlight is Lego marking the end of Stranger Things yesterday with its lavish new set based on the Creel estate—a big set among plenty of big sets landing today. Read on for our breakdown of all the big releases coming starting today!
Lego is getting a little late on the Crossworlds collab train with its latest Sonic sets (or is it just chasing after its own Mario Kart sets?), as Silver, Knuckles, and the main man all hit the road.
Lego Minecraft Sets
Minecraft‘s offerings this month include sets big and small, as well as a few fun non-traditional builds, like a display model of a pixelated fox and another small diorama replicating the many environments of the game’s biomes.
The Architecture line gets a bit clever with its latest diorama, an artsy wall-art-style rendition of the Parisian skyline, featuring notable highlights like Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, and more centered around the Eiffel Tower at its core. ($80, available here)
After many years away, Stranger Things Lego is back in style in time for the show’s final episode. Not only is there the lavish Creel House, packed with fun features and minifigures inspired by the final season of the show, but if you aren’t quite in the mood for such a pricey set, there’s also a new set of BrickHeadz figurines inspired by the last episodes.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes Sets
After many a quiet month, the Marvel line is back in a big way this month with something touching every corner of the Marvel multiverse, from plenty of Spidey sets to movie stalwarts and a lavish new buildable Iron Man.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner now, so the latest addition to Lego’s vast array of community-supported sets is a perfectly fitting set of little birds nestled on a branch to gift to your loved one. ($50, available here)
Lego Ninjago Sets
The year 2026 is a big one for Ninjago, as it looks back on 15 years of sets with a nostalgic wave that mixes up sets inspired by the latest season of the Dragons Rising show and recreations of classic sets complete with special bonus anniversary minifigures.
We’ve finally reached a year with a Star Wars theatrical release on the way for the first time in almost seven years, so it’s unsurprising that the Mandoverse is firmly the focus of this new wave—but Grogu aside, there’s fodder from the prequels and sequels to go with it, including a new buildable BB-8 to celebrate 10 years since his debut in The Force Awakens.
The latest Lego Art set takes a bit of a sideways step away from replicating iconic artwork from history with this original piece inspired by Japanese spring, with an idyllic view of Mount Fuji and a small temple alongside a 3D waterfall seeping out of the frame. ($140, available here)
Lego Disney Sets
The theme of the latest Disney princess sets is not minidolls, but mini… minis: little chibi brick-built figurines that give the feeling of almost like a little vinyl toy compared to the BrickHeadz/Funko comparison. But aside from the world of princesses, there are a few highlights, like a new buildable Olaf.
Lego Speed Champions Sets
It’s not too often that Speed Champions dips into licensed genre collabs, but this month’s wave has not one, but two: for kids, there’s a Champions-scaled build of Cars‘ Lightning McQueen, while for the kids at heart, there’s the latest Lego spin on the iconic DeLorean from Back to the Future.
Lego’s latest wave of blind-box minifigures is perhaps somewhat controversial to anyone who dreaded the costume animal representation showing up as part of past waves… because this one is all about them. Fish, peacocks, monkeys, parrots, dogs, and dolphins, oh my—a veritable ark’s worth! ($5 per box, available here)
After nearly 10 years, five seasons, several growth spurts, a surprise Kate Bush revival, and enough tie-in merch to fill the entire Upside Down, Stranger Things has ended. The occasion was so monumental the last episode got a theatrical release—though Netflix dropped the feature-length finale on its streamer, of course, for fans who’d rather finish the show exactly how they started it: on their couch.
So now that the finale is out there in the world—what are your thoughts? Unlike every other part of season five (and all other previous seasons), Netflix did not release a screener ahead of time for reviewing press. Everyone got their eyeballs on all those juicy spoilers at the same time. So we want to know: what did you think?
Share your reaction to how it all went down below. We can kind of assume the world was saved in the end, but should we? And along the way, who lived and who died?
What new needle drops seem poised to catapult another retro artist to fresh chart-topping success? Were there any surprise cameos from Stranger Things seasons past? What questions did the Duffer Brothers finally answer—and were there any plot threads left dangling? Did Netflix stick the landing this time, or do we have another Squid Game situation on our hands? Did Vickie and Robin ever make it to Enzo’s and order dessert?
Weigh in below, but if you haven’t yet watched “The Rightside Up,” be warned. Spoilers!
There are a lot of fashion choices on Stranger Things that fans love. Whether it be a Hellfire Club shirt, an 80s hair style, or a sweatshirt for a fictional radio station, fans want to dress like their favorite characters. Maybe don’t wear a wet suit around town though.
In season 5 of the hit Netflix series, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is wearing a wet suit to use her powers to try to connect with Will (Noah Schnapp). And when she realizes that Vecna is trying to come for Max (Sadie Sink), she jumps out of her tank to find a revived Will and on a new mission: Get to the hospital to save Max.
Now, I recognize that they were all in a rush to get out of there but El was aware enough to throw on sweatpants and shoes so I have to ask: Could she not grab a sweatshirt? For the rest of the season, she is wearing a wet suit in every scene. Sure, her attire is not the focus of their issues but they’re in a radio station that has branded sweatshirts. She couldn’t use one so she wasn’t sitting in a wet piece of clothing during all of their meetings.
Honestly, watching Will’s coming out scene and cutting to Eleven in a wet suit truly did make me laugh because I know that if she got that wet suit from Murray, he has to have some kind of shirt in the van that she can wear!
But I do think it is a hilarious choice. At this point, is she going to be wearing that wet suit for the final battle between Hawkins and Vecna? What if she has to swim somewhere? At least she’s prepared! I do love that she is rocking a wet suit though.
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is the Editor in Chief of the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.
Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.
In the final season of Stranger Things, references to 80s kids-on-bikes classics like E. T.the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies stepped aside for a surprising number of references to, of all things, the Madeline L’Engle science fiction novel A Wrinkle in Time. Here’s what you need to know about Holly Wheeler’s favorite book in the context of the show.
Holly (Nell Fisher) gets lured to the Upside Down in season 5 by Vecna/Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower). She calls him “Mr. Whatsit” after a character from A Wrinkle in Time. (Later in the season, we learn they met while she was in the school library doing a re-read. He claims to love the book too.) In the novel, Mrs. Whatsit and her sisters Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which summon a girl who doesn’t fit in named Meg Murry to another realm where her father has been held captive.
It is nice that Strangers Things remembered that coming-of-age stories with female protagonists exist for the referencing, even if they waited until the final season. Holly’s arc is chock full of them. There’s an Alice in Wonderland poster hanging up in her bedroom at the Creel House. She dresses in a yellow cape, like Little Red Riding Hood meets Madeline. There are also shades of Labyrinth in her journey. Though Vecna is not as alluring as the Goblin King, I love how Henry appears to Holly in a three-piece suit. He’s the perfect picture of a girl’s non-threatening prepubescent crush. It makes his villainy even creepier.
Holly’s AWrinkle in Time references don’t end at Mr. Whatsit
After she reunites with Max (Sadie Sink), Mike’s little sister nicknames the realm where she and Max are held hostage “Camazotz.” This is the name of the dark planet from A Wrinkle in Time. She’s very insistent on this comparison. The sixth episode of the final season is even called “Escape from Camazotz.”
Henry is not on the same page, however. When he uses the L’Engle book to entice Holly’s classmates/his hostages, he refers to “the Black Thing,” a term in the book that describes the force that has consumed Camazotz, as a threat in the real world and not the Upside Down. “Just as the Black Thing threatened Meg’s family,” he says, “so does the darkness threaten yours.” He sees the reality they left as Camazotz.
Henry’s version is not an entirely unfair.
He’s not wrong to assess American society like this, frankly. Conservatism was on the rise in the 1950s, when Henry grew up, and the 1980s when Stranger Things takes place. The sinister nature of Camazotz disguises itself as a sickly sweet, squeaky clean American suburb. Everyone conforms after a Big Bad called “IT” removes the things that make them unique. Suburbs will do that! (The metaphor is intentional, and not the subtlest social commentary. But A Wrinkle in Time is a children’s book after all.)
However, the irony of Stranger Things, of course, is that in trying to escape the conformist world that bullied him, Henry found and helped to created a new one in the Upside Down. He turned his family home into a sickly sweet, squeaky clean paradise in the Upside Down. He took a class full of middle school kids and made them conform. There’s a friggin’ hive mind! Vecna has been targeting outsiders, like Will, Barb, Eddie, Max, and I guess Middle Schoolers in general etc. for years. He punishes them for daring to embrace their uniqueness. He even gets his paws in Derek, Holly’s one ally, the way IT hypnotizes Meg’s brother Charles Wallace. Holly is correct. This is Camazotz.
Or, at least, I hope it’s irony. Otherwise, the A Wrinkle in Time references don’t make a lot of sense. We’ll have to see how Holly embraces her inner Meg Murry to help defeat Vecna and escape Camazotz when the Stranger Things series finale finally drops.
Leah Marilla Thomas (she/her) is a contributor at The Mary Sue. She has been working in digital entertainment journalism since 2013, covering primarily television as well as film and live theatre. She’s been on the Marvel beat professionally since Daredevil was a Netflix series. (You might recognize her voice from the Newcomers: Marvel podcast). Outside of journalism, she is 50% Southerner, 50% New Englander, and 100% fangirl over everything from Lord of the Rings to stage lighting and comics about teenagers. She lives in New York City and can often be found in a park. She used to test toys for Hasbro. True story!
The “Stranger Things” series finale is shaping up to be a major theatrical event.
1.1 million people have RSVP’d to watch the final episode of the Netflix sci-fi series in theaters on New Year’s Eve, according to an Instagram post from co-creator Ross Duffer, who also said that 3,500 showtimes across more than 620 theaters are completely sold out.
Duffer teased that he and his brother Matt Duffer, his co-creator, would be attending a screening or two. “What a way to close out a ten-year journey—together,” Duffer wrote. “Maybe we’ll see some of you in LA.”
Volume 1 of Season 5 premiered with four episodes on Thanksgiving Day, and Volume 2 followed with three more episodes on Christmas Day. Along with the theatrical release, the series finale will be concurrently released on Netflix on Dec. 31.
The finale will bring to a close what has been one of Netflix’s most important ventures ever. As exclusively reported by Variety, “Stranger Things” recently crossed 1.2 billion views, and has contributed more than $1.4 billion to the U.S. GDP. Season 4, which was released in 2023, still stands as Netflix’s No. 2 most popular English-language TV title of all time, and it’s expected that Season 5 will enter that list soon after its eligibility window opens in January, after the release of the finale.
