Watch: Did Stranger Things' Eleven Die in the Series Finale? The Duffer Brothers Say...
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Stranger Things season five, volume three. Friends don't lie-and neither does Sadie Sink. After the Stranger Things series finale ended with Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) sharing an alternate ending for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who was believed to have died while destroying the Upside Down, Sadie shared her opinion of what really happened. "I think she's dead," the actress-who played Max Mayfield in the Netflix show's last four seasons-admitted on the Jan. 5 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "I think Mike's story is just one last story and then they say goodbye to childhood. But that's just one final tale and that's it." Instead, the 23-year-old believed that Mike telling pals Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and Max a story that Eleven escaped and found herself in paradise was simply a coping mechanism. Although Max and the rest of the group proclaimed that they believe she's alive, Sadie is content with the ending.readHow Stranger Things' Spinoff Will Answer "Loose Threads" After Series Finale"I think it's stronger," she added. "That's my interpretation." But it turns out some people know what really happened to Eleven: Millie and co-creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer. However, they plan to keep the truth a secret. "We were just talking to Millie about it," Matt explained on the Jan. 4 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "I think it takes away the power of the ending if you tell people what you were thinking as you were writing it." The brothers emphasized that there was a reason they chose to leave Eleven's fate ambiguous.
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images"We want the audience to be in the shoes that Mike and the whole gang are in, which is, it's up to you to choose whether to believe or not," Matt noted. "I mean, there's evidence that could point in both directions. So, that's the intent of the scene." Thematically, Eleven represented the "more fantastical elements of the show," they said, which needed to conclude as the group transitioned into adulthood. However, from a realistic standpoint, the writers struggled to see how she could have her happy ending. After all, a large segment of the American military was hellbent on capturing her for further experimentation throughout season five.
Courtesy of Netflix"How does she continue to exist in that world?" Matt explained. "We had that debate and have characters having that debate throughout the season. What could that look like? Is a happy ending possible? Like a full, happy ending where she's married to Mike and they're living a completely happy life and the government has laid off them and they've ended their experiment?" He admitted that their team simply "couldn't figure out a way to make it work." While Millie hasn't shared her thoughts on the ending, her husband Jake Bongiovi did share an Instagram Stories Jan. 2 with the actress, writing, "I believe!!" But while the lid will remain on some Stranger Things fact, in the decade since its premiere, the curtain has been pulled back on the many ways the series came to life. Read on for more. Netfix1. After working on M. Night Shyamalan's Fox series Wayward Pines, brother writing duo Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer came up with the concept for Stranger Things, though it was initially called Montauk. "It's very hard when your brain is latched onto a title, it's really, really hard to get people to agree and accept another title," Matt told The Daily Beast in 2016. "Initially when we came up with this title Stranger Things, it was hard for people to embrace."Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic2. The Duffers envisioned filming the series on Long Island, but it ultimately proved to be too challenging. "We liked Montauk, because we liked the coastal setting, and Montauk was the basis for Amity, and Jaws is probably our favorite movie, so I thought that that would be really cool," Matt explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "Then it was really going to be impossible to shoot in or around Long Island in the wintertime. It was just going to be miserable and expensive." Atlanta ultimately became the home base for production.
Netflix3. Before Netflix picked up the series, almost 20 networks passed on the project, according to Vulture, with executives believing audiences would not be able to invest in a show starring four children. Netflix4. To play Eleven, then 12-year-old Millie Bobby Brown had to say goodbye to her hair. "The day I shaved my head was the most empowering moment of my whole life," the actress reflected during PaleyFest in 2018. "The last strand of hair cut off was the moment my whole face was on show and I couldn't hide behind my hair like I used to. As I looked in the mirror I realized I had one job to do: inspire...
You don't need hair to be beautiful."Moviestore/Shutterstock; Ron Galell