The Duffer Brothers Shut Down This Viral 'Stranger Things' Fan Theory on Twitter

If friends don't lie, then the Stranger Things creators are the best friends around.

A viral theory about the Netflix original series' old episodes recently caused quite the uproar. Rumor had it that the show’s writers re-edited a season 1 scene in which Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) photographs Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) without her knowing. Fans on TikTok believed Netflix retroactively cut a portion of the scene that showed him continuing to take photos as Nancy undressed in an effort to scrub the past creepy behavior of her now-boyfriend.

It's hard to resist a solid Stranger Things fan theory, but contrary to popular perception, that moment never actually existed, so there's no snippings for the cutting room floor. The Twitter-verified Stranger Things writers' room account even set things straight. "PSA: no scenes from previous seasons have ever been cut or re-edited. And they never will be," the post read alongside a GIF of Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) emphasizing the point.

"So that also counts for the Jonathan spying on Nancy scene in S01, as many people believe?" a fan questioned under the tweet. The writers confirmed with an emphatic, "Yes."

It's taken some fans totally by surprise. "Mandela Effect! I’ve had the episode downloaded since 2019, and it’s the same," one person wrote. "They didn’t change it. The show never showed Jonathan taking the photos in episode 2 directly," added a fan. "Can we retroactively help Max?" another asked.

The Stranger Things creators' candid response follows a British GQ article that penned its supposed re-editing a "dangerous TV trend." Fortunately, the swift humbling prompted the British publication to issue a correction. Retweeting the original article, the Netflix writers wrote, "It's hilarious that an article bashing the show for retroactively editing a scene (based off a false TikTok rumor) has now had to retroactively edit their own article. Oops."

It seems like this theory spiraled from the Duffer Brothers' June interview with Variety in which they contemplated "George Lucas-ing" Will's forgotten birthday. Though it seemed like the duo was joking, it had been done before. “We have George Lucas’d things also that people don’t know about,” said Matt Duffer revealed to to the outlet.

He didn't specify the exact changes, but the two admitted to tweaking "some of the visual effects” from season 4 volume 1 after it went up. “It’s not [the] story, but you’re essentially patching in shots," said Ross Duffer. "Netflix is — I don’t think they’ve ever allowed people to patch on opening week and even weekend."

Phew, we're happy they set the record straight.

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