How did Stranger Things almost end differently? The alternate ending Netflix didn’t choose

The Netflix juggernaut Stranger Things almost crossed a far more grim route, with the Duffer brothers at one point discussing alternative ways things could have changed the mythology of the show forever.

Season 4 was influenced by corrections that replaced harsh endings with more uncertain fates.

The push and pull between the courageous storytelling and fan obsession is palpable here, providing hints at what could have been had the creators assumed a less hopeful approach.

These abandoned options give insight into the creative experimentation that underpins one of the most influential streaming programs ever. Whether it was a death that was scripted and then undone, or something else, it could have otherwise redefined the series as a whole.

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Stranger Things Season 4: Original plans and alternate character deaths explained

Topping this list of phantom outcomes was the eventual death of Max Mayfield. In the original scripts of Stranger Things Season 4, the bloody meeting between Max and Vecna was intended to be her final death. Instead, she is left in a coma as a result of Eleven's intervention at the end of the season, with her destiny unanswered.

The Duffers have since admitted that the possibility of Max being killed was on the table, and it would have led the story to much more pessimistic realms. In saving her, even in part, they retained an air of dread whilst still leaving viewers doubting whether she would survive in the long term as they headed into Stranger Things Season 5.

On a YouTube channel, Stranger Things Unlocked, Ross Duffer said:

“It was discussed as a possibility. For a while, that is what was going to happen. But we ended up in this… we wanted to end it with a little more of a question at the end of the season. It’s still really dark, and if Max is going to be okay, we just don’t really know. We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into season five.”

The story of Eddie is a similar tug-of-war. In another version, he survived to endure the cruelty of a town that had never regarded him as anything more than a scapegoat. On a thematic level, this would have emphasized how the show has been meditating on outsiders and rejection. Rather, the Duffers bent into finality, giving Eddie an act of martyrdom and a legacy of valor forever.

Later, they would explain that since the beginning, Eddie had been conceived as a tragic hero– a pattern that made his eventual demise unavoidable, though not in detail perhaps, but in spirit.

On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Matt explained:

“In a way, we saw Eddie as a bit of a doomed character.”

Ross Duffer added:

“At the very end, you see people still drawing devil horns on his head – no one in Hawkins is going to accept a supernatural explanation for this. He would have wound up in jail, and this fantasy that he would have been able to walk and graduate sadly was not ever a realistic outcome for him.”

The most unexpected change of the early scripts was Enzo’s reprieve. His murder would have strengthened the brutal context of the Russian backdrop, heightening the bleak solitude in which Hopper and Joyce were thrust. His survival, however, gave the story some texture and continuity, indicating that all of the threads in this sprawling narrative need not unravel into tragedy.

These changes in who survives and who is killed support the tonal dynamism of Stranger Things. To the Duffers, death is not an effect, but rather a storytelling device, which they use to show the concept of sacrifice, up the ante, and to examine the human costs of supernatural war.

The fact that they are happy to get their hands dirty demonstrates the continued attempt to maintain suspense without neglecting the visceral attachment their fans have to these characters.

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Stranger Things alternate endings: How the story would have been different

The death of Max would have taken Stranger Things down a darker psychological road had she been permanently dead. To lose her would have given the fans a signal that no character was safe, regardless of being central, and would have increased fear, but possibly lost viewer loyalty, as people needed to believe in something. The other version that survives, where Max is in a coma, also keeps the tension without killing the optimism completely.

On the other hand, Eddie’s survival may have introduced a whole new line of theme. An alive Eddie, whom Hawkins deems a villain, would have represented the cruelty of social misunderstanding and the endurance of the outcasts. His death, though, made his arc a moment of sacrificial heroism, and his image would always be attached to the mythology of the show.

The survival of Enzo adds depth and continuity to the Russian subplot. His death would have made the Gulag setting even more arbitrary in its brutal treatment, but his presence brings a rare element of unity in an otherwise unfriendly plot. Every decision to live or die reinvents not only personal trajectories but the overall texture of the show.

In this regard, the alternative endings demonstrate a perpetual bargain between two imperatives of the Duffers: to write stories that are shocking and scarring, and to retain a narrative nucleus to maintain viewer engagement. Each revision is a deliberate attempt to achieve a balance between artistic integrity and audience expectation, so that the show is dark enough, but not so dark as to kill its heart.

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Stranger Things Season 4 ending reactions

The last episodes of Stranger Things Season 4 were a hotly debated topic. Even as people rejoiced over the show and its magnitude, critics reported problems with pacing and open-ended emotional breaks.

Some said that the death of Eddie was an underrecognized event by the other characters, and that the weak state of Max was more of a narrative pause button than an ending. Others also cited marginalized characters such as Murray as proof that not all story lines were getting the closure they deserved.

Kareem Takes on the News puts it as:

“Instead of leaving the series satisfied and sated, eager for the fifth and final season… I was left frustrated and annoyed. It was like eating a great meal, only to end with a sweet dessert that’s turned sour.”

In the meantime, fans have filled the gaps with speculation. Online forums are awash with theories of time loops and alternate timelines, with most imagining the bitter-sweet finales in which relationships are destroyed in one timeline and then re-created on a fresh timeline. The Duffers have, however, been explicit in ruling out some of the more outlandish speculations, reiterating their adherence to a planned narrative trajectory.

Speaking with Metro.co.uk, Matt clarified:

“That would be the equivalent of 'that’s all a dream'. No, I assure you that is not how we’re going to end the show… We’ve known where we’ve been going for a while. And we feel comfortable with it; hopefully, it satisfies everyone. We’ll see.”

What cannot be disputed is the echo of these near-endings. The creators, by deciding who to kill and who to leave alive, not only crafted Season 4 but influenced cultural discourse around it. Their decisions predict the demands of the streaming age of serial storytelling: how to shock without turning people away, and how to satisfy without letting the story become predictable.

In the case of Stranger Things, a show that thrives on horror, nostalgia, and heart, the balance between death and survival is the final high-wire act.