[This post contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4]
Both things can be true: there are too many characters on Stranger Things, but the new season four characters are welcome additions to the show. OK, maybe not all of them (Jason deserved his horrible death), but take Eddie, for instance. He was a nerd father figure to Dustin, and he shredded to Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” to distract an army of demon-bats, which is an objectively cool thing to do. From a story-telling perspective, it makes sense why Eddie was killed off. But the Iron Maiden fan will be missed.
Eddie was one of a few recently-introduced faces to die in season four, along with cheerleader Chrissy and Nancy’s horny newspaper friend, but the Stranger Things creators spared another new character.
“In terms of who makes it, who lives or dies, I think there was a version where Dimitri, a.k.a. Enzo, didn’t make it,” Matt Duffer revealed to Collider about the Russian prison guard who befriends Hopper. “Then he ended up making it. But that’s [the most] radical of a departure from the original idea versus what we ended up with.”
Enzo is a fan favorite, but he’s not Stephen King’s favorite Russian character:
STRANGER THINGS: I love that slimy, slinky Russian guy, Yuri. He deserves his own show. Like BARRY, only Russian.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 4, 2022
Yuri, Enzo, and Murray, eating peanut butter in a broken-down planes around the globe. Now there’s a spinoff idea.
(Via Collider)