Even though many Stranger Things fans are still mourning the death of Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), the Duffer brothers have confirmed that his alternative ending would not have made fans any happier.
Stranger Things introduced Eddie Munson as the Dungeons and Dragons-playing friend of Dustin who was quickly blamed for the first in a series of gruesome murders in Hawkins. While Eddie ultimately sacrificed himself to help defeat the true evil behind the killings, fans were disappointed by the Stranger Things death.
While on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Duffers described Eddie Munson as a character who they knew would not get a happy ending, regardless of whether he survived the Demobats or not. They knew from the beginning that Eddie would not make it out of season 4. "In a way, we saw Eddie as a bit of a doomed character," Matt Duffer said. "Even imagining the flip side of that where he does survive the battle is not a great life awaiting Eddie back in the right side up either. He was always really designed from the get-go as a doomed character."
The Duffer brothers stated that the only logical conclusion to Eddie's story was death. In a way, he was meant to be a tragic character. "There was never any other arc for him and there was no 'how do you survive this'?" said Ross Duffer. "At the very end, you see people still drawing devil horns on his head. No one in Hawkins is going to accept a supernatural explanation for this. He would have wound up in jail and this fantasy that he would have been able to walk and graduate sadly was not ever a realistic outcome for him."
Even though a season 5 return does not appear to be in the cards for Eddie, fans of the series and Quinn himself would love to see it happen. "I don't know, I was thinking...me and Joe Keery were discussing ways in which I could [come back]," Quinn said to RadioTimes earlier this month. "Maybe I'd be a figment of Gaten's imagination or something like that if there could be some room for something supernatural. My suspicion is that Eddie has done what he needed to do for the [Duffers]." Although many would love to see Eddie make a return, it does seem to appear that Eddie played his part and is now no longer needed.
Following the Stranger Things season 4 volume 2 finale, fans took to social media to protest the seemingly disappointing death Eddie received. Many fans were upset that he died in such a horrible way, and many others were upset that it seemed as though only Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) truly cared that he was gone. Although it doesn't appear that Eddie Munson will be making a return next season, writing on Stranger Things season 5 will begin later this summer.
Stranger Things season 4 is now available on Netflix.
Source: Happy Sad Confused, RadioTimes.com