Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the latest season of Stranger Things.
Stranger Things bosses have revealed that a change of heart during the production process stopped one of the show’s main characters from being axed in the season finale.
The most recent series of the hit Netflix sci-fi drama put Sadie Sink’s character Max at the centre of the story.
In the action-packed finale, Max came close to death thanks to Vecna’s curse, with the gang discovering that she is in a coma in hospital.
While the character’s fate is to be explored in the upcoming fifth and final season of Stranger Things, the show’s creators the Duffer Brothers have admitted they considered killing off the character during the writing process.
Speaking on Stranger Things’ official companion show Unlocked, Matt said: “[Max’s death] was discussed as a possibility. For a while that is what was going to happen. But [in the end we decided] we wanted to end it with a little more of a question at the end of the season.”
However, he insisted that Max isn’t quite out of the woods yet.
“It’s still really dark and if Max is going to be okay, we just don’t really know,” he added. “We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into season five.”
Earlier this month, the Duffer Brothers responded to criticism from cast member Millie Bobby Brown about their reluctance to kill off characters within the show.
“We aren’t Game Of Thrones,” Matt said. “This is Hawkins, it’s not Westeros.”
Following this, it emerged that another fan-favourite character was supposed to have been killed off in the final season, only for the writers to change their minds.
All four seasons of Stranger Things are available to watch on Netflix now.