Stranger Things ended six months ago, but fans still haven’t decided. Is Eleven dead? Millie Bobby Brown answers… in her own way.
We’ve all watched suspense around whether beloved characters might die. One of the most famous examples, without a doubt, was Jon Snow in Game of Thrones. His actor, Kit Harington, even shared a story about telling a police officer the truth to dodge a ticket. But as harrowing as the fears and hopes were, fans knew they could just wait for the next season to clear the suspense.
When it comes to Stranger Things, the situation is even tougher. A half-uncertainty hovers over the fate of Jane, aka Eleven, portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown. Unfortunately, this uncertainty won’t be resolved in any future episode (unless a surprise), because the Duffer brothers’ Netflix series has definitively bowed out. That leaves only one option: pester the young actress with questions to find out whether her heroine survived the series’ finale.
TO LIVE OR NOT TO LIVE
As Variety reports, Millie Bobby Brown couldn’t dodge, during her appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, a question about the fate of her character at the end of Stranger Things. The initial reply offers a glimmer of hope. Far from being reduced to mere spectatorship, the actress actually holds the truth—that the official version exists, though, as Brown explained, it will stay shrouded in mystery for now:
“They made me promise: don’t tell anyone. We swore a kind of secret oath. Nobody else is in the know. It’s just the three of us. And as to what we’ll do with that information, that’ll be up to them to decide.”
The rest of her response perhaps tilts the balance toward survival. She at least teased, jokingly, about the disbelief of many in her survival:
“[On social media,] Jake [my husband] said: ‘Ugh, opinions are so split.’ And the whole crew thinks I’m dead. That’s not nice at all! It probably means there’s something to it. Okay, guys, we get it: you wanted me to die. Whereas I was telling them: ‘Keep a little hope, though.’”
Indeed, as Variety notes, a number of Stranger Things actors weighed in on the question and leaned toward Jane’s death. For Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), the ending Mike describes “is just a way of coping. It’s stronger that way, right?” David Harbour (Jim Hopper) offered this perspective:
“Many people might think she’s in Spain or somewhere else. But from the very beginning of the series… we love this little girl, but we can’t really have a little girl with supernatural powers wandering around Hawkins, Indiana. She simply can’t exist.”
Yet others, like Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), have openly admitted wanting to believe it when talking to the media. In any case, for those who can’t stand the uncertainty, there’s a small reassurance: there is indeed an official version in the Duffers’ heads, and that version will probably be told… in a decade or two.
Millie Bobby Brown fans will be able to see her in Enola Holmes 3, starting July 1, 2026 on Netflix.
