Did the ‘Stranger Things’ creators actually use ChatGPT?
An ending this rushed? After nearly a decade of build-up? That is what everyone got? No wonder Stranger Things fans are spiralling and deluded about an episode that was never going to happen.
The final volume dropped, and instead of closure, all that landed was confusion. Sure, some pseudo-fans on the internet are defending the ending, but those who have been associated with the show since it first landed in 2016 and those who did hundreds of rewatches just to observe every single detail know what an absolute mess it was.
Characters vanished with no explanation, and plotlines collapsed mid-arc. And don’t even get started on the continuity mistakes. One scene said winter. The next? Full-on summer. And in the middle of all this mess, the internet exploded with one theory: the ending wasn’t the original one. That this wasn’t how it was supposed to go down.
Enter the “Conformity Gate” theory. Fans claimed there were signs that the show had secretly changed its ending to match studio notes or audience tests. Thus began another circus of delusion. One last hope to get the ending right.
And Netflix, perhaps sensing the tension, dropped One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, a behind-the-scenes documentary directed by Martina Radwan. A move meant to calm the storm. Instead? It threw gasoline on it.
As soon as the doc was out, we saw TikTok, Twitter and Instagram getting filled with zoomed-in screenshots and slowed-down scenes, and every frame getting dissected looking for proof. But it turns out? That entire theory was debunked. Just another rabbit hole. Nothing real came out of it.
Still, the damage was done. Trust had already cracked. Because in one blink-and-miss-it moment, someone spotted what looked like a ChatGPT tab open on one of the Duffer Brothers’ laptops.
Yes. ChatGPT. In the Stranger Things writers’ room.
Screenshots went viral in seconds. Reddit lit up more than the Christmas lights in Joyace’s house in the first season. The question spread fast: Did the Duffer Brothers (creators of one of the most emotionally rich and tightly written shows in recent memory) actually use generative AI to write part of the final season?
Radwan, who directed the documentary, was immediately asked about it in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. And she did not dodge. When questioned about the alleged ChatGPT tab, she said, “Are we even sure they had ChatGPT open?… To me, it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?”
She added that she never witnessed any unethical use of generative AI. According to her, the writers’ room was a place of live creative exchange and not machine-fed storylines. Her words tried to steady the boat. But the internet wasn’t having it.
Because this isn’t about one AI tab. It’s about fans who waited years for a story that deserved care and instead watched characters get sidelined, so, so many storylines abandoned, unnecessary characters getting introduced without any context (Hello, Dr Kay), so many loopholes and unanswered questions and stories getting rush-wrapped. And now, in the middle of all that, there is a screenshot that looks like a ChatGPT tab open while season five was being written? Even if it was just used for reference or research, it baffled the fans.
Nobody is saying the Duffers had ChatGPT write the entire script. But that tab was enough to crack something open. Enough to make people wonder how much of what they saw came from the creators’ minds and how much came from prompts. And Netflix? Silent. The Duffer Brothers? Also silent.
That silence speaks louder than any denial. Because fans are not demanding perfect endings. They are asking for intention. For human storytelling. And right now, it feels like that got lost somewhere in the fog of production delays, studio pressure, and maybe, just maybe, a little too much reliance on tech.
Whether the tab was real or not, One Last Adventure failed to comfort fans. Instead, it raised even more questions. About trust and storytelling. About what happens when a show that meant everything to millions fumbles at the finish line and nobody wants to say why.