‘Stranger Things’ Creators Respond To Death Criticism

The two biggest criticisms I’ve seen of Stranger Things season four are it’s too long and there weren’t enough deaths. Co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer have already settled the run-time complaint: season five will be eight episodes, instead of nine, and they’re “aiming for more like 10 hours” rather than 13 hours, not that Netflix minds the extra minutes. As for the lack of deaths, they’ll have to consult with Millie Bobby Brown.

“It’s way too big,” she said about the Stranger Things cast in an interview from May, before season four premiered. “Last night we couldn’t even take one group picture because there were like 50 of us. I was like, you need to start killing people off. The Duffer Brothers are two sensitive Sallies that don’t want to kill anyone off. We need to be Game of Thrones. We need to have the mindset of Game of Thrones.”

The Duffer Brothers responded to Bobby Brown (we don’t talk enough about how the actress who plays Eleven, a British teenage girl, has the same name as the guy who sang “Humpin’ Around”) on a recent episode of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast.

“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,” Matt said. “Just as a complete hypothetical, if you kill Mike, it’s like… That’s depressing… We aren’t Game of Thrones. This is Hawkins, it’s not Westeros. The show becomes not Stranger Things anymore, because you do have to treat it realistically, right?”

To be fair to the Duffers, “we need to be Game of Thrones” is the exact opposite of what you want to be heading into the final season.

You can listen to the podcast below.