Summary:
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The Duffer Brothers refuse to reveal Eleven’s fate in “Stranger Things” finale, leaving fans hanging until 2046.
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They joke about a two-decade silence on the topic, following in “The Sopranos” creator’s footsteps with Tony’s fate.
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Cast members and fan theories add to the mystery surrounding Eleven’s survival, keeping fans guessing for years.
If you finished the “Stranger Things” finale fuming about Eleven, bad news: the Duffer Brothers are not handing over an answer anytime soon.
Speaking on a live taping of Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Matt and Ross Duffer jokingly committed to a two-decade silence on whether Eleven survived the show’s New Year’s Eve finale.
“If we’re talking to you in 20 years, about Stranger Things, in 20 years,” Ross Duffer said. “I mean I hope so. I hope people still care. That would be great, and then I’ll say everything, yeah. At that point, 20 years from now.”
So we should know her fate by 2046.
The brothers are openly borrowing from the David Chase playbook. “The Sopranos” creator spent roughly 20 years dodging questions about Tony’s cut-to-black fate, a strategy that arguably kept the show culturally alive long after the credits rolled. The Duffers seem to be banking on the same effect.
They also debunked one fan theory in the process. The heartbeat-like sound right before the bridge collapse, which sleuths read as proof Eleven was alive? Matt Duffer says it was scripted as the sound of a brick, distorted to maybe, possibly, evoke a heartbeat. “It was meant to be interpreted as that potentially,” he said. Possibly. Maybe. Who knows. That’s the whole point.
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Even the cast can’t agree. Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink and Gaten Matarazzo have all said in post-finale interviews they don’t think Eleven made it out, a conclusion that apparently caught the Duffers off guard since none of them ran it by the people who wrote the ending.
