Stranger Things 5: Who's getting emotionally destroyed this season? (Spoiler: It's us)

You might remember the last time there was collective panic surrounding ‘probable, violent deaths’ on a show. Yes, that’s right, it was Game of Thrones.

Before the final season (that no one ever spoke of again) released, fans went down the rabbit-hole of theories and read books between lines of what the creators said. It’s the same frenzy as Stranger Things approaches its end: All fans are wondering about who, could die this ‘violent’ death that the Duffer brothers have grimly suggested?

Many fans have looked through foreshadowing and drawn their conclusions. Can we just pray…that no one dies? Is that too much to ask?

 Clearly it is. But here are the top 5 characters who might just die, because…everyone loves them so much, so they might just.

Steve Harrington

Everybody and their grandmother loves Steve Harrington. The former King of Hawkins High has been babysitting a rotating pack of feral children for four years straight and has gone through a full-body-and-soul transformation. He’s responsible, he’s loyal, he’s emotionally literate—basically, he’s a walking character-development TED Talk. Which is exactly why every storytelling red flag in existence is screaming doom.

In the sacred, cursed book of TV Tropes, when a character finally gets vulnerable, reflects on life, and confesses their deepest dream—it’s over. And at the end of Season 4, when Steve looked at Nancy hopefully and said he wanted a future, a house, and six kids (six?? Steve, sweetie, be serious), fandom collectively clutched their pearls.

As every traumatised TV fan knows:
If a character starts talking about weddings, graduations, or babies, the Grim Reaper is already warming up in the wings.

So yes, Steve Harrington wanting half a dozen children might be the cutest moment of Stranger Things—but unfortunately, in TV-survival logic, that’s basically a death wish.

But please, let’s be wrong this time. Steve really deserves a break.

 Will Buyers

Noah Schnapp’s Will Byers has been through enough trauma to last twelve lifetimes. Since Season 1, the poor kid has been kidnapped, possessed, body-hijacked, and basically turned into the Upside Down’s emotional support hamster. At this point, every time he appears on screen, fans instinctively brace themselves like they’re watching a horror movie through their fingers.

And as TV writers love nothing more than wringing tears from our souls, a solid chunk of the fandom is convinced Will is being set up for the ultimate heartbreak move—a dramatic, noble, self-sacrificial goodbye to save his friends.

Basically: Will Byers has suffered too much, and in TV logic, that either means he’s about to finally catch a break…or he’s about to heroically yeet himself into danger for the greater good.

Lucas Sinclair

He’s too good. Too pure. This boy has been hauling around comatose Max like an emotional support backpack, saving her, mourning her, screaming for her in the trailers with the kind of raw heartbreak that makes you reach for tissues and a support group.

And that’s why the fandom panic sirens are blaring.

TV writers love pain like Vecna loves monologuing, it’s entirely possible that Max survives her mental prison…only to wake up and discover that Lucas didn’t.

That would be so cruel, we would all need therapy, weighted blankets, and emotional service snacks for the next several months.

Joyce Buyers

 She’s a tough cutie, but when has that stopped writers from gleefully writing them off? Winona Ryder’s Joyce has been through the real ringer, from saving her child in the slimy Upside Down to running to Russia and saving David Harbour’s Jim Hopper.

Eleven

Millie Bobby-Brown has been saving the world for the past five seasons. She has literally carried the weight of alternate dimensions on her shoulders, ripped portals open (and closed them), and has saved the gang more times than we can count.
But now, whispers across the fandom suggest the unthinkable: what if Season 5 is where she doesn’t make it?
The idea of Eleven sacrificing herself—giving everything to protect the people she loves—feels painfully possible. It would be the ultimate heroic send-off, the kind of devastating, noble act that fans would dissect, debate, and emotionally unravel over for the next century.

Prove us wrong, Stranger Things. Come on now.