The Duffer Brothers, creators of the hit Netflix original series Stranger Things, have responded to actor Millie Bobby Brown’s recent criticism of the show.
Brown, who plays Eleven in the series, was interviewed by The Wrap recently alongside co-star Noah Schnapp (Will Byers). Most interestingly, the pair were asked what they want for their characters in the fifth and final season.
Agreeing with Schnapp’s initial assertion that the Duffer Brothers “need to kill” some characters, Brown said: “It’s way too big. Last night, we couldn’t even take one group picture because there was like 50 of us. I was like, ‘You need to start killing people off’.”
“The Duffer brothers are two sensitive Sallies that don’t want to kill anyone off. We need to be Game of Thrones. We need to have the mindset of Game of Thrones.”
After appealing to the Duffers to “kill me off”, Brown continued: “They tried killing David [Harbour, Chief Hopper] off, and they brought him back. It’s ridiculous.”
Some of the show’s fans and followers have taken to social media since to share and concur with Brown and Schnapp’s comments after all core members of the cast made it out of season four alive.
During the latest edition of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Duffer Brothers were asked to respond to the criticism. “We heard,” Matt Duffer said. “What did Millie call us? She said we were ‘sensitive Sallies’. She’s hilarious. Believe us, we’ve explored all options in the writing room.”
He continued: “Just as a complete hypothetical, if you kill Mike [Finn Wolfhard], it’s like… that’s a depressing… we aren’t Game of Thrones. This is Hawkins, it’s not Westeros. The show becomes not Stranger Things anymore because you do have to treat it realistically, right?
“So even when Barb [Shannon Purser] dies, there’s two seasons worth of grappling with that, so imagine – is that something we’re interested in exploring or not interested in exploring?”
But Duffer did promise that further deaths were “on the table” as Stranger Things heads “towards the end”.
“This is me basically defending myself against these Millie Bobby Brown accusations and explaining that there are lives behind it, and it’s nothing to do with my sensitivity. So there you go, Millie,” he explained.
Before airing the final two episodes of the fourth season, the Duffer Brothers had teased a substantial “body count”. As it transpired, we only endured three major character deaths over the last two episodes of the season – Dr Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine), Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) and Jason Carver (Mason Dye).
It seems some of the restless fans among us are hoping for a higher toll in the final run of episodes, the cast included.
