STRANGER THINGS Creators Respond To Millie Bobby Brown Calling Them Out For Being Too Scared To Kill Anybody

The final two episodes of Stranger Things Season 4 released earlier this month, wrapping up another emotional season of the sci-fi horror. Leading up to the final episode, it almost felt like the Duffer Brothers were mentally preparing us to experience multiple deaths at the hands of Vecna. But like previous seasons, much of the group was spared.

In the end, the only person to die in the finale of Stranger Things Season 4 was Eddie Munson (although we're not 100% sure what's going on with Max right now). And while it was heartbreaking to witness Eddie die, there are some fans who were hoping for more bloodshed.

In a recent interview with TheWrap, Stranger Things stars Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) and Noah Schnapp (Will) were discussing the current size of the cast, which basically resulted in Brown jokingly going off on the Duffer Brothers for being afraid to kill people in the show. 

“You need to start killing people off. The Duffer Brothers are sensitive sallies who don’t want to kill anybody off. We need to have the mindset of ‘Game of Thrones.’ Kill me off! They tried killing David off and they brought him back!”

Now that the season is over, the Duffer Brothers appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and responded to Brown's call out. Matt Duffer defended the decision to not kill off more main characters in the finale.

“What did Millie call us? She said we were ‘Sensitive Sallies.’ She’s hilarious. Believe us, we’ve explored all options in the writing room. Just as a complete hypothetical, if you kill Mike [Finn Wolfhard], it’s like… that’s depressing… we aren’t Game of Thrones. This is Hawkins, it’s not Westeros.”

Duffer continued to defend his stance by using the character of Barb (Shannon Purser) as an example. He explained: “So even when Barb dies, there’s two seasons worth of grappling with that, so imagine – is that something we’re interested in exploring or not interested in exploring?”

Heading into the finale, we did expect multiple main characters to die — most of whom seem to have completed their arc. Steve, for example, is a character whot feels complete, and as much as we would've hated to see him go, it feels like there's not much more to explore there (outside his potential love triangle with Nancy and Jonathan). Still, we can't complain that another season of Steve and Dustin sweetness is on the way. Fans will have to trust in the Duffer Brothers and their belief that they shouldn't kill a character just for the sake of shock value, especially given the ramifications it would have on the entire group. 

But before you get too comfortable, Matt did admit that more deaths are "on the table."

“This is me basically defending myself against these Millie Bobby Brown accusations and explaining that there are lives behind it,” Matt continued, “and it’s nothing to do with my sensitivity. So there you go Millie.”