(Credits: Netflix)

Stranger Things creators have a thing for killing off characters just when fans learn to warm up to them. But do the deaths ever stop haunting the ones at the other end of the Netflix screen? That’s a million-dollar question.

According to the Duffer brothers’ recent conversation with TIME Magazine, even the showrunners don’t exactly rejoice in killing these characters. But the body bags are ultimately crucial “for the threat to feel real.”

“It’s important that every death resonates in a big way. Which is why we’re very careful who we kill because it has these massive season-long ripple effects. Otherwise, it just doesn’t feel like it has any weight to it,” Matt Duffer explains. From Barbara Holland to Eddie Munson, Stranger Things has experienced several tragic deaths so far.

And as viewers walk into the fifth and final season, hoping at least the main squad makes it through, the showrunners chose to revisit the four most gut-punching deaths in Stranger Things from seasons one to four.

Barb

When Barb was dragged down to the Upside Down in the first season, the fan outcry reached a new high about the show’s lack of attention towards it. Although the actor, Shannon Purser, briefly appeared in just two episodes in the debut season, her death left a lasting impact on the audience. Yet, what hurt them the most was the fact that Hawkins had seemingly forgotten about her, leaving the viewers to take the responsibility of justice into their hands with #JusticeforBarb flooding social media.

Speaking of her character arc, Matt Duffer says, “The reason we had Barb in there as a character is we wanted Nancy to have a real direct connection to the supernatural goings-on.” The concept that she was the nerdy friend who was slowly succumbing to the popular circuit of the school really fascinated them, having experienced something similar in high school. But Ross Duffer likes to consider themselves as Barb of the high school, not Nancy in any aspect.

“We had friends who were Nancy, who left us. We didn’t die, but we died on the inside,” Matt Duffer said. It came as quite a shock that, despite Barb only having 25 lines in the entire show, the reaction was so profound. “As we were turning in the scripts for season one, the one note we consistently got back is like, ‘What about Barb? Is anyone thinking about Barb?’ And we’re like, it’s a show about Will, and so much else is going on,” says Ross Duffer.

Although they didn’t have as much time or bandwidth to introduce Barb’s family, Netflix just couldn’t let it go. In part, they were right. “But that was part of the reason she became a phenomenon because of how little the town seemed to care about her, which is part of the point of that character,” they explained. The negligence ultimately paid off, as it made her that much more important and famous at the end of the day.

Bob

Akin to Barb, Bob was also introduced in Stranger Things to die as well. But the only difference is that he made it alive an entire season, unlike her. The initial idea was to get Bob killed by Will in the early part of the season. But the crew grew so close to him that they had to rewrite his arc, postponing his death from the third episode of the second season to the finale. To have Will kill Bob would have pulled hatred for the Byers kid. As a result, they had Demodogs pull the trigger.

Billy

Originally, Joe Keery’s Steve Harrington was supposed to be the bad guy of Hawkins High School. But ultimately, the Duffer brothers had a change of heart while casting. “Because Joe Keery was so endearing, we began to shift the Steve character. It was a very different character than we originally imagined for Steve, who was much more of a vicious, mean bully. And so we were brainstorming ideas for what Max’s brother would be like, that’s the vibe we wanted,” clarified Ross Duffer.

Billy Hargrove was the ultimate bully in Stranger Things, who never let a moment of peace to his step-sister, Max, or even her friends. So, the creators always knew that he was going to be killed off since the moment he was introduced in the series. While they had a “possession story” reserved for Billy’s arc, actor Dacre Montgomery convinced them to give him a more intense backstory. The backstory ultimately helped viewers wrap their heads around his repulsive behaviour.

“He’s never redeemed like Steve. He never becomes a good guy. But we know that deep down there is this goodness in Billy,” Ross Duffer adds. And the goodness shines out in his decision to save Eleven in the battle with the Shadow Monster.

Eddie

Eddie Munson’s casting was something the Duffer brothers considered the “hardest” in the show. When they found Joseph Quinn, they knew they had hit a jackpot. The character was complex from every aspect. He was annoying, he sold drugs, he was the leader of the Dungeons & Dragons group, and to make things worse, he ended up as the primary suspect in the mysterious deaths, leading Hawkins residents to fear and look down upon him.

“We knew Joe was special, but we didn’t know how special until we started filming,” they said. But just after three weeks of shooting, production came to a halt with the COVID-19 pandemic, which actually was an advantage for the creators as it allowed them the chance to reckon with Quinn’s potential. So, they went back and revised Eddie’s scenes, knowing he would be the “backbone” of the instalment.

Indeed, Eddie was always meant to sacrifice himself for the gang. But once they reached that sequence, it was really hard-hitting. “It was similar to Sean Austin because it meant saying goodbye to Eddie and Joe,” Matt Duffer explained.