Joe Keery Ends the Debate: Steve Harrington Gets His Happy Ending in Stranger Things Season 5
Breathe easy, Stranger Things diehards — Steve Harrington isn’t on the chopping block. With Season 5 fast approaching, Joe Keery all but guarantees the fan favorite will make it out of the finale alive.
Everyone take a breath: odds are good Steve Harrington lives to tell the tale. With Stranger Things 5 on the horizon, Joe Keery just gave the most reassuring non-spoiler he could give without Netflix tackling him off-camera.
Joe Keery basically says Steve is okay
In a new ExtraTV clip posted November 7, 2025, Keery said he was very happy with how the story wraps up for him personally. When pressed on whether fans would feel the same, he didn’t hedge.
'Oh yeah! Absolutely yeah! They are gonna like it!'
Is that a legally binding guarantee? Of course not. But if you’ve been bracing for a Steve-shaped gut punch in the finale, this is as close to a green light as you’re going to get before the credits roll.
Why Steve making it matters
Steve started out as the slick-haired S1 high school jerk, then slowly morphed into the show’s most consistent MVP. Teaming up with Dustin in S2 flipped the whole character on its head: the nail-bat babysitter with a heart, the 'single mom of Hawkins' who shows up, takes the hit, and still worries about his hair on the way into battle.
That slow-burn evolution is the kind of arc you don’t toss away for shock value. If the Duffers did that, it would undercut years of character work. Judging by Keery’s mood, they know it.
So... who takes the hit?
Since the Steve panic has cooled, the fandom has moved on to a darker guessing game. The consensus is that not everyone gets out clean, and the conversation keeps circling the same names.
- Will Byers: Rewatchers on Reddit say every season doubles down on Will’s connection to the Upside Down, and some are convinced that thread ends with him paying the ultimate price.
- Eleven: Another popular theory argues the story comes full circle only if Eleven sacrifices herself to close what she opened, ending the war between worlds for good.
- The adults: A chunk of fans think the kids might skate by while the parents take the heavier losses. Less cosmic poetry, more brutal realism.
Bleak? Sure. But those theories track with the show’s emotional wiring: Will’s ties to the darkness, Eleven’s power and responsibility, and the idea that victory in Hawkins isn’t free.
When it drops
Stranger Things Season 5 hits Netflix (US) in two parts: Volume 1 on November 26, 2025, and Volume 2 on December 25, 2025.
Place your bets. Who makes it out, and who doesn’t?