The last season of Stranger Things is officially underway, with Netflix releasing the first four episodes, and as usual, it’s left fans reeling after trying to piece together what is going to happen to the gang in Hawkins.
Which leads us into one of the more exciting parts of the show – fan theories! Since this show’s aired, fans have broken down easter eggs, combed through DnD game rules, ’80s movie references, all to come up with the most insane theories.
In an attempt to solve the mystery of how the Duffer brothers are planning to end this behemoth of a show, we’re going to break down some of the most popular ones ahead of the next episode drop.
Will and Steve may die
This is a major fan theory that has been spreading around Reddit and TikTok, with fans speculating that both characters are set to meet their demise at the end of season 5.
The evidence, you ask? Well, for Steve fans are convinced that it has been foreshadowed in the scene with Steve and Johnathan climbing the radio tower.
With one fan adding that there is a scene in the trailer for part two, we can see a cloud of smoke and darkness spiralling around the radio tower, and fans are convinced this could see both Steve and Jonathan climbing that tower again in the season finale – but only one of them (Johnathan) comes back down. This also links with the comments the Duffer brothers have made previously about originally planning on killing Steve in season 1.
For Will, it comes with the idea that the Duffer brothers have built Will up to accept himself, his powers, and step up to make the ultimate sacrifice to save his friends.
This comes from the idea that Will and Vecna are connected in a similar way to how Harry Potter was connected to Voldemort by being an unintentional Horcrux. Will is carrying a part of Vecna with him, and if he is unable to sever that connection, it could lead us to saying goodbye to him at the end of season 5.
The trio that finally kills Vecna
This Reddit theory has been circulating since season 4, with fans spotting subtle easter eggs during the scene where Eddie runs his ultimate D&D campaign. Towards the end of the game, Dustin and Erica are the last players standing to defeat Vecna. Dustin rolls first and gets an 11 (not enough to beat Vecna), hinting that Eleven alone may not be able to take him down.
Next, the scene cuts to Lucas playing in a championship game, wearing a jersey with the number 8, which fans believe references Eleven’s sister Kali, whose ability to create fake memories and illusions could prove crucial in taking down Vecna.
The final clue comes from Erica, who rolls last and scores a 20, securing their victory over Vecna. To reach a total of 20, Eleven and Kali (8) need 1, and fans theorise that this ‘1’ points to Will, Vecna’s first victim and the first person whose mind he opened. The theory suggests that, symbolically, the story starts and ends with Will.
This theory also seems to be confirmed by Google, because when you look up Stranger Things, you get this DnD dice at the bottom of your screen, which is stuck on the number 20.
The time travel theory
This theory is probably one of the more prominent theories floating around the internet since season 5 started airing. There have been many references to unlocking the fourth dimension (time) within the show and even within the first four episodes of the new season. Henry’s clock, a common motif throughout season 4, which Henry (Vecna) uses to taunt his older victims, could indicate something to do with time or specifically trying to travel back in time.
Vecna’s plan is also contingent on his collecting 12 children, like the number of hours in a day or time zones on a clock. The children are also being held in his lair, which looks A LOT like the wormhole diagram that Mr Scott Clarke (science teacher) was drawing.
Honourable mention also to the fact that Mike’s sister, Holly, was reading A Wrinkle In Time and that Dipshit/Delightful Derek seemed to be making a model in class of a tesseract. This could add extra merit as to why they were chosen and taken by Vecna, and the theory that he is planning to build a sort of tesseract to go back in time.
Fans also point to the Stranger Things Broadway show, which also indicates that Vecna/Henry does have some regrets about murdering his family and suggests that this could be a motivating factor in him wanting to go back in time.
The Duffer Brothers debunk popular Stranger Things fan theories
The Duffer brothers have driven internet sleuths mad over the years while trying to figure out and predict the various plot twists and turns that fans can expect in Stranger Things. But as we head into a brand new season, it would seem that they are finally ready to debunk a few wild fan theories that have definitely missed the mark.
The first theory that the brothers dismissed was the theory that Eddie Munson would return as a vampire. This theory has been floating since Joseph Quin’s character met his demise in Season 4 by being torn apart by the demobats. The Duffer Brothers had allegedly mentioned that the demobats cannot kill people, which has led some fans to speculate that Eddie is still alive and actually stuck in the Upside-Down. Where he is being ‘transformed’ into Kas, a vampire from the original DnD game who becomes Vecna’s right-hand man. But the Brothers have confirmed that this is 100% not happening in the show.
The second big theory that the Duffer brothers have put to bed is the theory that the entire show is all an elaborate DnD campaign/ novel being written by Mike. For a long time on Reddit, there was a theory floating around that the big plot twist at the end of the show would just be that the entire show was a story being told from the perspective of Mike. Specifically, Mike from season 1, who was just trying to cope with the disappearance of his best friend (Will).
The last theory that bit the dust was the theory that Will saw Vecna in season 1 of the show when he was kidnapped. The Duffer brothers have clarified in recent interviews that the shadowy silhouette that Will sees in that first season is definitely not Vecna and is probably the Demogorgon that took him into the Upside Down.
The second volume of Stranger Things Season 5 episodes drop on Netflix on December 26.
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