Duffer Brothers reveal one huge way that makes Dr. Brenner and Dr. Kay different in Stranger Things, details explored 

The final moments of Stranger Things just took a much darker tone. Kali has Eleven convinced that the only way to put a stop to everything happening in Hawkins is for One, Eleven, and Eight to all vanish with the Upside Down.

Eleven argues with her that this is not the case, and that they could live a happy life if they destroy Dr. Kay's lab and kill her. However, Kali makes it clear that this will never be the case. She counters that at first it was Dr. Brenner, and then it was Dr. Kay, and even if they die, there will always be someone else who wants to continue these experiments and replicate the powers. It further insinuates that Dr. Brenner and Dr. Kay were cut from the same cloth in Stranger Things. It would appear so, considering both of them held these children as prisoners and used their powers to replicate them in unborn children.

However, in a recent conversation with ScreenRant, creators Matt and Ross Duffer contributed their own two cents on why they think Dr. Kay and Dr. Brenner are different from each other. Keep reading to find out what they revealed about the two characters.

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer on how Dr. Kay is inherently different from Dr. Brenner

Dr. Brenner's fascination with Henry's powers, and then using his blood to replicate them in other unborn children, has caused a lot of damage in Stranger Things. As Brenner breathed his last in Season 4 after helping Eleven get her powers back and escape from the military, it appeared as if this was the end of this specific brand of antagonist. He was someone who was fascinated with these kids' powers and used them to create new subjects.

However, Stranger Things Season 5 revealed that this was not the case and introduced a new antagonist in the form of Linda Hamilton's Dr. Kay. The first volume delivered an exciting twist when Eleven discovers that it wasn't Henry the military had trapped, but instead it was Kali, her sister. The second volume revealed that Dr. Kay was behind all of this, just as Dr. Brenner was, and she was using Kali's blood to try to replicate Dr. Brenner's experiment.

But Kali was never a strong enough replica of Henry. Her experiments were failing, leading her to focus and become obsessed with capturing Dr. Brenner's only subject who was almost as strong as Henry, Eleven. In a recent conversation with ScreenRant, creators Matt and Ross Duffer explained that even though Dr. Kay and Dr. Brenner might come off as irrevocably similar, there is a key difference between the two.

While Dr. Brenner wasn't a person motivated by good intentions in any way, he had a paternal instinct toward his subjects, especially Eleven. In Stranger Things Season 4, he dies as a morally ambiguous character who held a deep and complex paternal instinct for Eleven. Yet he was also a man who held children as hostages and experimented on them.

"I think, not that Brenner is a good guy, but that the key difference here is that he did in some way have these paternal feelings for Eleven."

Dr. Kay, on the other hand, has no such instincts or connections holding her back. To her, these kids are just weapons, and her singular motivation is to create more weapons, at any cost. No matter the lives of kids or of soldiers, her singular obsession with capturing Eleven and replicating Brenner's experiment drives her. This makes her even more cold, calculating, and dangerous than Dr. Brenner ever was. As Matt Duffer encapsulates perfectly: "She's just sociopathic."

"And Dr. Kay doesn't see Eleven like that. She doesn't see Kali like that. She sees them really just as a weapon that she can use. She just wants her blood to continue the program. She doesn't see anything human about Eleven. It doesn't matter whether Eleven's doing heroic things or evil things. It's all moot to Dr. Kay."

He concludes:

"That's a very cold and calculating way to look at it. And so you have to go that if Eleven gets in her hands, it's even more dangerous than when Brenner happened."

We'll have to hold on until the final episode of Stranger Things Season 5 to find out if Dr. Kay succeeds in her obsession, or if Kali convinces Eleven to sacrifice herself for the good of humanity. Or maybe, they'll find a way out that's neither of these options.

The Stranger Things series finale will be available to stream (and watch in select theaters) on December 31, 2025.

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