Millie Bobby Brown Criticizes Stranger Things, Writers Fire Back
Millie Bobby Brown has a few strong tips for the writers of Stranger Things, but they are not taking this lying down.
This article is more than 2 years old
With season four’s volumes one and two debuts, Stranger Things entered its most impressive era. Volume two specifically broke records over the fourth of July weekend as IndieWire reports that episodes eight and nine accumulated over 300 million hours viewed in three days. Part of promoting the show has included interviews with many of the series’ young performers, which has resulted in some off-script moments. One of the series’ breakout stars, Millie Bobby Brown, has recently made comments about her thoughts on the lack of deaths among the show’s principal characters leading up to the final season, and it seems that the showrunners have started firing back against her comments.
According to an interview with Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp by The Wrap, Brown discussed her interest in some gruesome changes occurring within the Stranger Things universe. One particular change would involve killing off a main character as Brown believes the cast of characters has grown exponentially throughout the run of the series. Looking around at the fourth season’s premiere, she noted that she didn’t realize how large the cast had gotten. Adding that she thinks series creators Matt and Ross Duffer are too sensitive to kill anyone off, Brown stated, “We need to have the mindset of ‘Game of Thrones.’ Kill me off! They tried killing David off and they brought him back!” In this statement, David refers to David Harbour, who plays Jim Hopper, a character that was thought to have died at the end of season three but was quickly brought back in season four.
For their part, the Duffer Brothers have since responded to Millie Bobby Brown’s comments. According to a report from The Independent, Matt Duffer confirmed that he heard about Brown’s grievances but stuck to his guns by saying that Stranger Things shouldn’t be compared to Games of Thrones as “This is Hawkins, it’s not Westeros. The show becomes not Stranger Things anymore, because you do have to treat it realistically, right?” Unlike the fantasy drama of Games of Thrones, audiences are meant to root for the underdogs, with most of the main cast depicting teenagers. Duffer also mentioned the death of Barb Holland (Shannon Purser) from season one as an example where fans of the series had to grapple with that death for subsequent seasons. If they were to kill off one of the main characters in the fifth and final season, that would need to be something they’d have to explore all options.
Stranger Things debuted on Netflix in 2016 in a nostalgia-filled burst of 1980s pop culture and horror movie tropes. The Duffer Brothers came from a horror background with their independent feature Hidden as well as contributing to episodes of M. Night Shyamalan’s Fox mystery series Wayward Pines. Since her starring role as Eleven in Stranger Things, British actor Millie Bobby Brown has seen incredible success. Nominated twice for the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Eleven, Brown has gone on to star in blockbuster films like 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters and its 2021 sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong. She has continued her run on Netflix with the offbeat take on Sherlock Holmes called Enola Holmes, a role she will reprise in the sequel that is currently in production. For both Enola Holmes films, Brown has served as a producer.
