Stranger Things 4 nearly killed off this main character: 'For a while that is what was gonna happen'
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Warning: Spoilers from Stranger Things season 4 are discussed in this article.
That ending to Stranger Things' fourth season could've been even bleaker.
Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer sat down with actress Felicia Day for Netflix to discuss the ending of the show's penultimate season after the season's second volume dropped on the streaming platform. According to Ross, there was serious consideration to have Sadie Sink's Max Mayfield die in the finale.
"It was discussed as a possibility. For a while that is what was gonna happen," Ross tells Day. "We wanted to end it in a little bit more of a question mark at the end of the season where it's still really dark and we don't know if Max is going to be OK… We don't really know," he adds. "We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into season 5."
Suffering from depression while being tormented by Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), Sink's Max sought to lure her demo-stalker into her mind again so her friends could attempt to destroy his physical form. Tragically, Vecna succeeds in killing Max, though she's shortly resurrected by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) — or is she?
Vecna doesn't just kill, he consumes his victims, absorbing the essence of their minds and souls. Max, who lies in a coma, might have a pulse, but, as Eleven discovers, her mind is empty. Max is nowhere to be found in the black void.
Netflix Will Max (Sadie Sink) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) reconcile?
Sink had previously shared with EW that she doesn't know what fate is in store for her character. "It's definitely all up in the air right now," she said. "I'm just as excited as everyone else to find out where Max is and how she's doing."
This isn't the season's first big change from development to execution. Enzo, a.k.a. Dmitri (Tom Wlaschiha), the Russian prison guard who becomes buds with Hopper (David Harbour), was killed off in the initial script.
"He ended up making it," Matt had said. "But that's [the most] radical of a departure from the original idea versus what we ended up with."
The Duffers also discuss the death of Joseph Quinn's Eddie Munson in the finale episode. "We fell in love with Eddie, we fell in love with Joe and what Joe was doing… It was written, it was gonna happen and we knew he had to die, but there's definitely a part of me that wishes he was still around for 5," Matt says.
Watch more from their conversation in the video clip above.
Related content:
