Be warned, this contains spoilers for the final season of Stranger Things! From the very beginning, Stranger Things has heavily featured the game Dungeons & Dragons. The final episode includes a scene that cleverly echoes the show’s very first moments.
The final scene of “Chapter 8: The Rightside Up” mirrors the very beginning of the series, with the remaining characters gathering in Mike Wheeler’s basement for one last game of Dungeons & Dragons. In an interview with Tudum, creators Matt and Ross Duffer explained their reasoning for bringing the story full circle.
We’d been planning that ending for a long time. It felt fitting to bring the story full circle, as it’s really about these characters moving on from their childhoods. The basement, and especially their Dungeons & Dragons game, is where we first met them, and represents that childhood. So, to properly say goodbye, they needed one last game.
Filming this scene was a lot of fun and brought us right back to the very first day of shooting, when we filmed the kids playing Dungeons & Dragons in Season 1. It felt fitting that this scene would be our last, as it mirrored that first shot. We even tried to recreate the camera work from all those years ago.
Honestly, filming that scene was incredibly moving and brought back a lot of memories. It was one of those days where what was happening on set – the emotions the actors were bringing, and even what we, as the filmmakers, were feeling – really reflected what was happening in the scene itself. We’re all really proud of how it turned out, and it feels special because of that shared experience.
Image via Netflix
Mike, Max, Dustin, Lucas, and Will are all gathered around a table. As they finish playing, each of them leaves to make room for Mike’s younger sister, Holly, and her friends, who are starting their own Dungeons & Dragons game.
As Ross points out, Mike is essentially saying goodbye to his childhood while watching events unfold, fondly recalling happy memories of his younger days. The ending, particularly Eleven’s fate, is left open to interpretation, but for Mike, it marks the end of an era and the start of something new, signifying a loss of innocence and adventure.
The future of Stranger Things is still uncertain, but creators Matt and Ross Duffer have confirmed that the show will expand with spinoffs. An animated series, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, is coming soon and will fill in gaps in the original story, focusing on popular characters and events that weren’t shown.
All seasons of Stranger Things are available to stream on Netflix.
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2026-01-01 21:28