For a show that grew up alongside its audience, the final stretch of Stranger Things was never going to be just about beating the monster. It was always going to be about goodbyes. In recent interviews, Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp have both described what it felt like to film those last, defining moments, and why certain scenes mattered enough to fight for.
The last scenes were not just acting, they were closure
When actors spend nearly a decade inside the same world, the final scenes carry two stories at once. There is the character’s ending on screen, and then there is the actor saying goodbye to a job that shaped their entire adolescence.
That is why Brown’s and Schnapp’s comments land with weight. Neither of them frames the finale as a victory lap. They talk about emotion, pressure, and the need to leave their characters in a place that feels earned.
Millie Bobby Brown on filming Eleven’s goodbye
In Netflix’s Tudum breakdown of the finale, Brown describes a key farewell moment for Eleven, and the point she wanted it to hit emotionally. She explains that Eleven is saying goodbye to Mike, and she connects it directly to the bigger question the show leaves hanging about Eleven’s future.
The Duffers back up why that scene is built the way it is. They describe how they wanted the finale to feel emotionally truthful, even if it meant resisting a clean, fully spelled-out ending for Eleven.
Why Eleven’s ending was designed to be debated
The most important detail from the creators is not a twist. It is intent.
In the same Tudum piece, the Duffers explain that they deliberately leave parts of Eleven’s fate open, including a final beat that can be read in more than one way. They even compare it to a classic storytelling device, where something “mysteriously” disappears and the meaning is left to interpretation.
That choice is exactly the kind of thing that creates debate online. Some viewers read ambiguity as poetic. Others read it as dodging commitment. Either way, it is a deliberate swing, not an accident.
Noah Schnapp on Will’s most personal scene
Schnapp’s standout moment in the final season is a long, intimate scene where Will finally says out loud what he has been carrying for years. In Netflix Tudum’s interview, Schnapp says he was nervous about how the Duffers would handle it, then describes reading the script alone and crying because it resonated with him.
He also emphasizes the importance of the writers actually committing to that storyline instead of leaving it unresolved, and he says he texted the Duffers immediately after reading the scene.
Whatever you think about the finale overall, this gives you a clear window into why that scene hits the way it does. Schnapp is not talking about it like a plot point. He is talking about it like relief.
Schnapp asked for one more scene, because something felt unfinished
Not all meaningful final moments start in the script.
In a separate interview with People, Schnapp says he felt like there was something left unsaid between Will and Mike, so he went to the Duffer Brothers and asked for another scene. According to Schnapp, they agreed, wrote it, and shot it later.
That detail matters because it shows what “final scenes” really are at this level: not just what the writers planned, but what the cast is still emotionally tracking after years with these characters.
Brown’s last day on set sounded like a real goodbye
Brown has also been blunt about what the end felt like in real life.
In a People interview about wrapping the series, she says the last day of filming hit her hard. She describes crying “so much,” and being “not fine,” while pointing out that she has never known a world where Stranger Things was not a constant part of her life.
That is the through-line between her and Schnapp. Their final scenes are not just “big TV moments.” They are the end of a long, weird, once-in-a-generation experience.
What their comments reveal about how the finale was built
If you combine what Brown, Schnapp, and the Duffers have said, you get a pretty clear picture of the finale’s priorities:
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Emotional truth mattered more than spelling out every answer.
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At least one major character beat was shaped by real input from the actor who had to live with it.
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The goodbye was as much about growing up as it was about closing the Upside Down chapter.
That is why the ending is the kind people argue about. It is trying to leave you with a feeling, not a checklist.
