Did Eleven really die in ‘Stranger Things’ finale?
After nine years of supernatural outing with Stranger Things on Netflix, the creators really chose to keep the world in the dark regarding Eleven’s true fate.
But it turns out there’s one person who exactly knows whether Eleven survived or died in the epic finale, and it’s none other than the Eleven actor, Millie Bobby Brown.
In an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on January 4th, series co-creators, the Duffer Brothers, confirmed that they decided what the “truth” is about whether Eleven makes it alive or dies in the process, which they have also shared with Brown. However, neither the showrunners nor the actor intends to reveal this ever.
“She’s not going to tell you either,” Matt Duffer said on the podcast, warning the host not to waste his time asking about it. “Millie swore herself to secrecy,” he continued, which means it’s not just us; the rest of the Stranger Things cast aren’t in on this as well.
Amid the podcast, the Duffer Brothers travelled the extra mile to send Brown a reminder about not divulging anything about Eleven’s fate to her on-screen co-star and off-screen best friend Noah Schnapp, joking that he cannot be trusted with secrets. She responded just minutes later, reassuring, “Of course, not.”
As viewers might recall, Eleven appears to sacrifice herself to shut down the cycle of experimentation, first conducted by Dr Brenner and then by Dr Kay, in the series finale of Stranger Things, which arrived on New Year’s Eve 2025. But in the final moments of the show, when the rest of the gang plays one last Dungeons & Dragons campaign in Wheeler’s basement, Mike lays out a theory about how Eleven could have faked her death to throw dust in the eyes of onlookers.
Mike and his friends decide to believe his theory about Eleven being alive, although Stranger Things never really confirms it. Sure, the audience gets to see Eleven arriving at a blissful place with three waterfalls. However, the show never really verified whether it’s real or just a visual from Mike’s theory. On the podcast, Matt Duffer revealed that the writers had paid careful consideration to the possibility of Eleven getting her happily-ever-after, but they “couldn’t figure out a way for that to work”.
He also added that it could have taken “away the power of ending” if they had launched their own interpretation. In many other post-finale interviews as well, they addressed the ambiguous end to Eleven’s character as necessary because it makes viewers believe in Mike’s story, just like the characters.
“The characters can’t know, and the audience can’t know because then it puts Eleven in danger and her sacrifice was for nothing,” Matt Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter.