Photo: Elle
Stranger Things Season 4’s ending could’ve been a lot more bleak.
The Duffer Brothers told Felicia Day that there was serious deliberation whether or not to kill off Sadie Sink’s Max Mayfield in the final episodes of the fourth season.
“It was discussed as a possibility. For a while, that is what was gonna happen,” Ross told Day.
“We wanted to end it in a little bit more of a question mark at the end of the season where it’s still really dark, and we don’t know if Max is going to be OK… We don’t really know,” he continues. “We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into season 5.”
Undergoing depressive thoughts while being tortured by Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), Max looked to play as decoy and bring the demo-creature to her mind again, so her friends could kill his physical form in the Upside Down.
Sadly, Vecna was able to kill Max, but she’s briefly resurrected by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) – or is she?
Read Also: Stranger Things Creators the Duffer Brothers Originally Wanted to Kill [Spoiler Alert]
Vecna doesn’t just kill, he consumes his prey, sipping on the essence of their minds and souls. Max, who is in a coma, might still live; however, as Eleven finds out, her mind is void. Eleven is unable to locate Max in her own mind.
In a recent interview, Sink admitted that she was unaware of the fate of her character.
“It’s definitely all up in the air right now,” she stated. “I’m just as excited as everyone else to find out where Max is and how she’s doing.”
In the original script, Enzo (Tom Wlaschiha), known as Dmitri (Tom Wlaschiha), the prison-guard who becomes friends with Jim Hopper (David Harbour), was going to die. However, the Duffer brothers decided to leave him be.
“He ended up making it,” Matt stated. “But that’s [the most] radical of a departure from the original idea versus what we ended up with.”
The Duffer Brothers also discussed the end of fan-favorite Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) in this episode.
“We fell in love with Eddie, we fell in love with Joe and what Joe was doing… It was written, it was gonna happen and we knew he had to die, but there’s definitely a part of me that wishes he was still around for 5,” Matt reveals.
Read Also: Stranger Things Remains to Hint Will’s Huge Announcement
Opinions expressed by Artist Weekly contributors are their own.
