To save you the trouble, we watched One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 in its entirety—two hours and two minutes.
Fans were divided by the Stranger Things 5 conclusion, it’s safe to say. While some were annoyed by the many plot holes in the story, others appreciated how the Duffer brothers gave every character a happy ending (except from Mike and El, sob).
Some viewers were so irate that they thought a different conclusion had been shot and was scheduled to be published on January 7. This event became known as the #ConformityGate disaster.
Even though that “secret episode” never happened, there might have been a reason why everything felt a little… incomplete. And that’s because, as the new Netflix documentary One Last Adventure reveals, Matt and Ross Duffer made changes to the screenplay while the group was filming season 5: The Making of Stranger Things 5.
They say, “We were getting hammered,” in the movie. “There’s never been so much noise.”
Thus, these are every scene from the Stranger Things ending that was left off.
They originally discussed having demogorgans in the Abyss
The documentary opens with a scene in the Los Angeles writers’ room where the Duffer brothers discuss what ought to happen in the Abyss at the decisive confrontation.
One contributor notes that it shouldn’t simply be the children, Joyce, Vecna, and the Mindflayer as the group brainstorms ideas.In reference to the necessity of demogorgans, demodogs, and demobats and how they have been in prior seasons, he said, “It’s crazy if there’s nothing there.” This was a criticism made by fans themselves when the series finale aired without any animals.
But another writer in the conference questioned whether viewers may be experiencing “demo fatigue”—a point that the show’s creators obviously took into account because, as it turned out, there were no further monsters in the finale.
What is the drawback of this? Fans contend that the stakes weren’t as high, in addition to being inconsistent with the rest of the show. There would have been a stronger sense of danger and relief when the main characters had their happy endings if Joyce and the children had been confronted by an army of monsters.
Will was originally supposed to take down Vecna
Although it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss moment, astute viewers saw some intriguing scribbles on the whiteboard behind the Duffer brothers in the video, suggesting that Will was intended to defeat Vecna in the original version.
“Will confronts Mindflayer” is written on the board behind them. (Just so you know, we can read on the board that “demos” were supposed to appear in the battle scene at this stage of the writing process.)
Technically speaking, Will attempts to “confront” Vecna in the last battle by appealing to his humanity and persuading him that he doesn’t have to be a total villain. However, is it possible that the Duffer brothers had more in mind for Will and his newfound abilities? Supporters think so.
Eleven’s death wasn’t always going to be ambiguous
The Duffer brothers also talk about El’s death and how they saw it unfolding in One Last Adventure.
In the documentary, they admit that they changed the script during production to make it more ambiguous, even though at first they intended for her death to be limited and extremely obvious to spectators.
According to Ross, the entire show must be leading up to “Eleven is going to kill herself.”
Another author then proposes to trick the audience into believing she has changed her mind before disclosing that she will actually sacrifice herself.
Even then, the Duffers come to the conclusion later in the movie that Mike ought to present Max, Will, Dustin, and Lucas with a different conclusion—one that implies El fled and is still alive someplace.
Joyce and Hopper did recognise Vecna
The fact that neither Joyce nor Hopper mention that they attended school with Henry Creel, also known as Vecna, is one of the most perplexing aspects of the Stranger Things climax.
In fact, the First Shadow play, which is currently performing on Broadway in New York and the West End in London, revolves around their high school years, with all of the adult characters from Stranger Things interacting with him in the hallways of Hawkins High.
In the TV series, this is mentioned in passing when Max enters Henry’s memory and witnesses Joyce distributing fliers for her production of Oklahoma!, which stars Henry, Hopper, Patty Newby (Bob’s sister), Alan Munson (Eddie’s father), Karen, and Ted Wheeler.
Why, therefore, did Max not bring up this connection with Hopper and Joyce when she came out of her daze? When Nancy and Robyn discovered Vecna’s true identity
back in season 4, why didn’t Joyce and Hopper reveal this information?
Matt and Ross Duffer stated in an interview with Variety last month that they probably did recognize him and talked about their former classmate, but the debriefing only took place off-screen. Easy to use.
Yes, I’m positive that [that realization] occurred. Since a large portion of our audience is unable to witness the performance, we had to tread carefully so as not to annoy them,” Ross told the newspaper.
“To have them start talking about it would have been confusing in the context of someone who hasn’t seen the play,” he said. “But I’m sure they did have that conversation.”
