Stranger Things Creators Reveal the Fan-Favorite Who Almost Died in Season 1 — and the Pivot That Saved Them

Stranger Things almost took a very different path. In a new chat with Entertainment Weekly, series creators Matt and Ross Duffer admitted two fan favorites were nearly wiped off the map: Steve in season 1 and Hopper at the end of season 3. How close did it get? Closer than you might like.

Steve Harrington: almost gone in season 1

According to Matt Duffer, Steve was on the chopping block early. What saved him? Joe Keery, basically.

'That was close. We just fell in love with Joe Keery, but had we not liked Joe Keery, Steve would've been gone.'

If you try to imagine the show without Steve morphing from high school jerk to the party's unofficial babysitter/monster-whacker, it kind of breaks the whole vibe. That arc ended up doing a lot of heavy lifting for the show's heart.

Hopper: death brushed right past him in season 3

The brothers also revealed they seriously considered killing Jim Hopper when the Starcourt Mall blew up and the Russian storyline detonated with it. Matt says there was a version of the season 3 ending where Hopper dies for real. We obviously know how that turned out: season 4 brought him back, grimier and more complicated.

'It would've been very easy to kill him but Hopper still had growing to do. We hadn't finished his story. It's important to us to be able to finish the stories we want to finish and not just be offing people for shock value.'

They do talk about killing main characters — and then think about the fallout

The Duffers say these decisions are some of the toughest calls they make, and they regularly debate big deaths with the writers. The sticking point is always the ripple effect. Their example: take out Mike and the show instantly turns bleak, and then the story becomes primarily about grief. Even supporting-character losses — Eddie (Joseph Quinn), Bob (Sean Astin), Barb (Shannon Purser) — still hang over the group in meaningful ways. That restraint is why the series can keep raising the stakes without feeling empty or mean-spirited.

So who is safe in the endgame?

Short answer: probably not everyone. The Duffers stopped short of promising happy endings, but the message is clear — if someone dies, it will be because the story needs it, not because they want a cheap gasp.

Season 5 rollout

• Volume 1 (4 episodes): November 26
• Volume 2 (3 episodes): December 25
• Finale: December 31