Eesha Kulkarni

Over the last decade, we’ve watched the young cast of Stranger Things grow up right before our eyes, with Millie Bobby Brown leading the pack as Eleven. The series premiered in 2016 with most of the cast being just preteens, but now as they’ve entered their late teens and early twenties, it’s evident that they’re ready for the next chapter of their lives. MBB recently confessed in an interview that she’s prepared to say goodbye to her iconic role as the powerful telekinetic character in the fifth and final season of the hit Netflix show.

“I’m definitely ready to wrap up. I feel like there’s a lot of the story that’s been told now, and we know of it, it’s been in our lives for a very long time. But I’m very ready to say goodbye to this chapter of my life and open new ones up,” Millie said, adding that, though she’s ready to move on, she will always be “really grateful” for the show.

However, she might have to wait a bit, as her co-star Finn Wolfhard recently hinted that the final season may not be released until 2025, despite the initial announcement from the Duffer Brothers that it would end with season 5 in early 2022.

“By the time it comes out, I will be 22, I think, and I started working on the show at 12. That is insane,” Finn recently said in a video interview, hinting at a 2025 release. Though Netflix has yet to announce an official release date, Stranger Things 5 is reportedly set to begin filming in June 2023, so taking post-production time into consideration, Finn’s calculations are probably right.

This means that though Bobby Brown will part ways with Eleven as a character this coming summer, we’ll still see her at various Stranger Things events, such as red carpets or premieres as they promote the final season.

That being said, there may be a chance we’ll still see Bobby Brown in the Stranger Things universe. Rumours circulated in 2021 that she could potentially star in her own Eleven spinoff, but this theory has since been debunked. While the Duffer Brothers have confirmed that the franchise will continue beyond the upcoming final season, it’s unclear what direction it will take or if MBB will be involved in any future projects. Nevertheless, fans can still expect to catch a glimpse of the actress at promotional events for the final season.

“I’ve read these rumours that there’s gonna be an Eleven spinoff, that there’s gonna be a Steve and Dustin spinoff,” the Duffer Brothers said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2022. “That’s not interesting to [us] because we’ve done all that. We’ve spent, I don’t know how many hours exploring all of that. So it’s very different.”

How is it different? “1000% different,” said the siblings. This leaves Stranger Things fans with too many questions and, as usual, not enough answers, but, hey, Finn Wolfhard already cracked the code, so why can’t you!?