‘Stranger Things’ creators share main characters they almost killed off

Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers and Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson in ‘Stranger Things’ season 5. (Netflix)

Stranger Things creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer are opening up about the characters they almost killed off in earlier seasons of the show.

While the brothers did not disclose any details about which characters could possibly meet their demise this season, they recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about main characters who came close to dying in earlier seasons.

“Hopper at the end of season 3. I think death grazed him,” Matt Duffer said. “There was a version where he perished at the end of 3. It’s been a while since we had those discussions, but I feel like he came the closest to dying.”

David Harbour has played Jim Hopper in every season of Stranger Things. His return in season 4 was shocking to some fans, after his character was caught in an explosion at the end of season 3.

Ross Duffer said it “would’ve been very easy to kill him.”

“Hopper still had growing to do. We hadn’t finished his story. It’s important to us to be able to finish the stories we want to finish and not just be offing people for shock value,” Ross Duffer said.

Matt Duffer also said the duo considered killing off fan-favorite character Steve Harrington, who is played by Joe Keery, back in season 1.

“That was close,” Matt Duffer said. “We just fell in love with Joe Keery, but had we not liked Joe Keery, Steve would’ve been gone.”

Netflix is releasing season 5 of Stranger Things in three different drops. The first four episodes arrive on Nov. 26, just ahead of Thanksgiving, while the following three episodes will debut on Dec. 25. The series finale premieres on Dec. 31.