{"id":2161,"date":"2026-05-22T18:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/22\/stranger-things-stars-on-that-viral-secret-episode-fan-theory-that-was-fing-crazy\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T18:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:11:00","slug":"stranger-things-stars-on-that-viral-secret-episode-fan-theory-that-was-fing-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/22\/stranger-things-stars-on-that-viral-secret-episode-fan-theory-that-was-fing-crazy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Stars on That Viral Secret Episode Fan Theory: \u201cThat Was F***ing Crazy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tNearly five months after Stranger Things<\/a><\/em> came to an end, creators The Duffer Brothers<\/a>, executive producer Shawn Levy<\/a> and stars Noah Schnapp<\/a>, David Harbour<\/a>, Natalia Dyer<\/a> and Jamie Campbell Bower<\/a> reunited on Thursday for an Emmys For Your Consideration event in Los Angeles, where they opened up about the finale<\/a> \u2014 and that viral conspiracy theory about a secret last episode. <\/p>\n

\tThe fifth and final season of Netflix\u2019s monster hit was released in three parts, with the series finale arriving on New Year\u2019s Eve. After it dropped, some fans latched onto an extensive theory dubbed \u201cConformity Gate,\u201d that the final episode<\/a> had portrayed an illusion created by villain Vecna (played by Bower) and that a surprise ninth episode was going to be released<\/a>, serving as the show\u2019s real ending. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThat was crazy, that was fucking crazy,\u201d Bower said of that time, noting how the fans were further fueled by a social video he did to promote his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon<\/em>. \u201cThe fans held onto that, they were like, \u2018He\u2019s saying something about time and he\u2019s stopping on nine!\u2019 And I was like, \u2018No, no, no, we\u2019ve just come up with this idea in the back of a car to the airport!’\u201d <\/p>\n

\tSchnapp told \u30cf\u30ea\u30a6\u30c3\u30c9\u30fb\u30ea\u30dd\u30fc\u30bf\u30fc<\/em> how he was being spammed with texts from people asking about the secret finale \u201cand I was like, \u2018I promise you we did not film another episode.\u2019 I don\u2019t know where people got that from, I\u2019ve never seen so many people convinced of something so wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tLevy also weighed in on that time, saying, \u201cThe sort of wishful thinking, legendary, fabled episode nine \u2014 that was baffling and thank God by that point I had learned not to even try engaging with people online, and that the internet and social media is this sort of self-fueling machine of theory and story. I felt bad for the world, because they really believed; as much as I believe that Eleven is still alive somewhere by those waterfalls, the world seemed to really believe for a while in that extra episode. I knew they were going to get their hearts broken by its absence, but there was nothing I could do to spare them that pain.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

\tAs Levy referenced, the real finale was left open-ended, with Millie Bobby Brown\u2019s Eleven seemingly sacrificing herself inside the collapsing Upside Down, but then followed by a scene that implies she may still be alive and in hiding. Bower and Schnapp said they both believe Eleven survived at the end, as Levy emphasized that he thinks The Duffers \u201csuccessfully gave audiences a complete experience while still asking for engagement in that \u2018what if?\u2019 The show ends but how we envision these characters moving forward is sort of up to us, it\u2019s a little choose-your-own-adventure.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\u201cFor me, it was really successful, and you\u2019ll never satisfy everyone but it feels like we satisfied most,\u201d Levy continued. \u201cThat\u2019s better than most series I can think of, especially ones with this kind of fan base, which is ferocious.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tThe FYC event, which took over the famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery, also featured a conversation with the crafts team including makeup effects department head Barrie Gower, hair department head Sarah Hindsgaul, supervising sound editor Craig Henighan, stunt coordinator Hiro Koda and VFX supervisor\/concept artist Michael Maher. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly five months after Stranger Things came to an end, creators The Duffer Brothers, executive producer Shawn Levy and stars Noah Schnapp, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer and Jamie Campbell Bower reunited on Thursday for an Emmys For Your Consideration event in Los Angeles, where they opened up about the finale \u2014 and that viral conspiracy theory about a secret last episode. The fifth and final season of Netflix\u2019s monster hit was released in three parts, with the series finale arriving on New Year\u2019s Eve. After it dropped, some fans latched onto an extensive theory dubbed \u201cConformity Gate,\u201d that the final episode had portrayed an illusion created by villain Vecna (played […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1346,249,2,1347,1348,1349,148,1350,1351,85,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-david-harbour","category-events","category-hollywood","category-jamie-campbell-bower","category-natalia-dyer","category-noah-schnapp","category-shawn-levy","category-stranger-things","category-the-duffer-brothers","category-tv","category-tv-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}