About five months later Strange things The series has come to an end, as creators The Duffer Brothers, executive producer Shawn Levy and stars Noah Schnapp, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer and Jamie Campbell Bower gathered Thursday at the Emmys For Your Concern event in Los Angeles, where they talked about the finale — and a viral conspiracy theory about a secret final episode.
The fifth and final season of the hit Netflix series has been released in three parts, with the series finale arriving on New Year’s Eve. After its fall, some fans clung to a widespread theory dubbed “match-gate”, that the final episode depicted an illusion created by the villain Vecna (played by Bower) and that a surprise ninth episode would be released, serving as the series’ true ending.
“It was crazy, it was absolutely crazy,” Bauer said of the time, noting how fans were further stoked by a social video he made to promote his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. “The fans latched onto it, and they were like, ‘He says something about the time and stops at nine o’clock!’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no, we just came up with this idea in the back of the car heading to the airport!’”
Schnapp said Hollywood Reporter And how he was getting spam from people asking about the secret finale “And I was like, ‘I promise we’re not shooting another episode.’ “I don’t know where people got that from. I’ve never seen so many people convinced something is so wrong.”
As Levy commented at the time, saying, “That kind of wishful, mythical, Episode Nine — that was confusing and thankfully at that point, I’d learned not to try to engage with people online, that the Internet and social media is this kind of self-feeding machine for theory and story. I felt bad for the world, because they really believed; as much as I believe Eleven is still alive somewhere near those waterfalls, the world seemed to really believe in this one more episode for a while. I knew they were going to be heartbroken because His absence, but there was nothing I could do to spare them this pain.
As Levy pointed out, the true ending was left open, as Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven appears to sacrifice herself inside the collapsing Upside Down, but is then followed by a scene that suggests she may still be alive and in hiding. Bauer and Schnapp said they believe Eleven survived in the end, and Levy also emphasized that he believes The Duffers “managed to give audiences a full experience while still asking to be involved in that ‘what if?'” The show ends but how we envision these characters progressing is kind of up to us, it’s a choose-your-own-adventure.
“For me, it’s been really successful,” Levy continued. “You’re never going to please everyone, but we seem to have satisfied the most.” “This is better than most series I can think of, especially ones with this kind of ferocious fanbase.”
The FYC event, which took over the iconic Hollywood Forever Cemetery, also featured a chat with the crafts team including Head of Makeup Effects Barry Gower, Head of Hair Sarah Hindsgoll, Supervising Sound Editor Craig Hennigan, Stunt Coordinator Hiro Koda, and VFX Supervisor and concept artist Michael Maher.
