Stranger Things creators, the Duffer brothers, recently addressed the rumors of an Eleven spin-off movie and Millie Bobby Brown's alleged decline of the leading role.
As Stranger Things enters filming of its much-awaited fifth and final season this summer, two media outlets, The Daily Mail and The Sun, had recently circulated rumors that Brown declined the potential project, citing the star’s ardent rejection of a 7-figure paycheck to reprise her famous role in a feature film format. Brown has often spoken about retiring from the role, and a desire to hand off the reigns to other actors for Stranger Things spinoffs.
Matt and Ross Duffer have often admitted to talking about spin-offs and ways to keep the Stranger Things universe alive after its long tenure as one of Netflix's most popular shows. According to the show’s writer room Twitter account, however, a spin-off with Eleven at the center starring Brown was never on the table. They responded to the Daily Mail's story on Twitter, writing, “Yeah there’s nothing in this article that is true.”
As noted by The A.V Club, an Eleven-focused spin-off would be a strange choice, given how much of the original Stranger Things series is essentially Eleven's story. Likely, all audiences need for Eleven’s narrative they will probably get in the fifth and final season, which will, hopefully, give fans some much-needed closure after nearly a decade of storytelling. Regardless, as previously mentioned, Brown has expressed interest in stepping away from the role once Stranger Things is complete.
While rumors swirl about potential Stranger Things spin-offs devoted to other characters, the Duffers suggested not jumping the gun. The two discussed their spin-off strategy during an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast last year, stating, “It’s not following…I’ve read these rumors that there’s gonna be an Eleven spinoff, that there’s gonna be a Steve and Dustin spinoff, or that it’s another number. That’s not interesting to me 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.”
The nature of the showrunner's different strategies and storylines remains to be seen. However, they open up interesting possibilities for the franchise to bring in entirely new characters and narratives for the Stranger Things universe. Some of the most successful spin-off series television, like Game of Thones' House of the Dragon, take a prequel or alternative strategy to conventional spin-off plots. With Stranger Things' rich lore and imaginative world-building, this can only bring exciting things.
Stranger Things season 5 begins filming in June for Netflix.
Source: Stranger Writers, The AV Club, Happy Sad Confused