The big secret behind ‘Stranger Things’ final ending has been revealed
Stranger Things fans were already running on zero sleep before the release of volume one, and now that it’s finally dropped, we have been hit with another shocker, people. The Duffer Brothers clearly decided the fandom needed one more high-voltage blow to our systems, and it happened in an interview.
Their WGFestival appearance started off normal enough, and then they dropped a line that felt like a psychic slap straight out of the Upside Down. The final ending of Stranger Things, the ultimate, all-eyes-on-Hawkins conclusion, was never created for season five. It was born during the making of season two.
Yes. That season two, where we saw the Mind Flayer, Max and Kali.
Back when the show exploded in 2016, the Duffers realised they had to expand the entire universe overnight. Season two’s planning turned into a creative free-for-all. The writers’ whiteboard was overflowing with ideas. Not small ideas. Huge, universe-shaping concepts about Will’s strange connection to the Upside Down and the darker corners of Hawkins Lab that were never fully explored. Too many threads. Too much lore. Not enough space to use any of it.
And then Matt Duffer said the sentence from the interview that set the fandom on fire: “A lot of our big ending stuff has pulled from stuff that we thought was going to be in Season 2.” Excuse me?? EXCUSE ME???
This means the ending of the show was never accidental. And we know that has been confirmed many times, but this information is in a major spotlight now. It was never something they figured out because the series became a giant Netflix phenomenon. It was a plan sitting in a folder for years, waiting for the moment the story could finally handle its weight.
Suddenly, all those early mysteries look different. Will’s sensitivity. His visions. His connection to the Upside Down, which never went away. The little hints about Eleven’s past that always felt like unfinished business. Turns out none of it was unfinished. It was reserved.
The timeline behind season five’s writing makes this reveal even wilder. Because of production delays, the entire outline for the final season existed before season four came out. After the world reacted, the Duffers reread their outline and started reshaping. Not a light edit. A proper overhaul. The emotional core is the same; it’s just that they decided to take the road Robert Frost always avoided.
Why does this change everything?
A finale built from season two ideas is not nostalgia. It is closure. It means Stranger Things is snapping back to the seeds planted in its earliest chapters. It means the ending is rooted in the DNA of the story, not the pressure of its success. The threads fans noticed years ago were not coincidences. They were breadcrumbs leading straight to the final season.
This reveal gives every moment in Volume One a sharper edge. The story is looping all the way back to the place where it started, pulling old questions into the spotlight and hinting that Will’s journey is more important than anyone realised. The final chapter of Stranger Things is not reinventing itself. It reveals the plan the Duffers wrote long before the world even knew what the Upside Down was.
In short, the ending is not new. It was there inside season two, all along, waiting to blow our minds. And now that the Duffers have finally said it out loud, the hype for what comes next has multiplied.
What’s left for you to do is wait for a month for volume two to release, or you can go back digging in season two and find the answers on your own (if you can).