Duffer Brothers Tell All Following the Emotional 'Stranger Things' Finale

After a decade of thrilling fans, Stranger Things officially concluded with its Season 5 finale, leaving viewers from Hawkins with a mix of emotions and numerous lingering questions.

As discussions sparked across the internet, ranging from heartfelt praise to heated backlash, creators Matt and Ross Duffer remained largely silent during the rollout of the final episodes.

Now that the series has wrapped, the Duffer Brothers are sharing their insights on the much-debated ending, the surrounding discussions and the creative choices that fueled such conversations.

In a post-finale interview with Variety, the brothers tackled criticism directly, particularly the notion that certain scenes felt unnecessary — a sentiment that circulated widely on social media and review platforms.

Addressing the backlash, Ross emphasized the long-term intention behind one of the finale's most talked-about moments — Will Byers' big monologue.

"The coming out scene is something we've been building to for nine years now," he shared. "It was a really important scene for us, and a really important scene for Noah [Schnapp] — not just from a thematic point of view, but also a narrative point of view."

Ross elaborated, connecting the narrative purpose of that scene to the show's core themes and its final villain.

"This show has always been about our characters overcoming evil, and in order to overcome this evil, Vecna, in so many ways, represents all the dark thoughts and the evil of society," he said. "And for our characters to overcome that, it really becomes about embracing themselves, and then also embracing one another and coming together."

Scroll through our gallery below to read more insights from the Duffer Brothers on the finale of Stranger Things Season 5.

Addressing the way the members exit the basement, Matt told Tudum, "That's them leaving their childhood behind."

"I think Finn [Wolfhard] gave a really beautiful performance there because you see him go through this real grief and sadness about leaving it behind [before experiencing] bittersweet happiness," he added.

Ross also commented on the scene featuring Mike realizing what would happen next when Holly and her friends start their own D&D game.

"[The moment is about Mike] remembering all the joys that he had as a kid," Ross noted. "[The memories will] always be there for him, but it's time to move on."

When asked whether the Duffer Brothers planned to add more deaths in the finale, Ross confirmed they "talked through everything" in the writers room.

"You talk through everything, every possibility, and we knew from early on what we wanted to do with Eleven and her fate, and you talk through the other characters, but I think at the end of the day, for us, the show is an adventure story. It’s a coming of age story," he told Deadline.

He continued, "Having those discussions is how we landed on [the idea] that we want our heroes, most of them, to make it out of there."

In a separate interview with TheWrap, the Duffer Brothers explained Eleven's fate and if she is really dead.

"We want to leave her fate up to the audience," Matt teased. "Something that everyone agreed on was that it didn't feel possible, really, for her to be there [in the basement], unless we invented some nonsense where her powers were somehow removed again or something like that."

"The spinoff will connect and it will answer some of these lingering questions that were not actually answered fully in the finale, but it is very much its own story and its own mythology. So it's not about the Mind Flayer per se. We’ve explored that about as much as we want to," Matt told TheWrap regarding the franchise's future.