Stranger Things - Fan favorite Steve Harrington was supposed to be killed off in season 1
While it may be hard to believe now, Steve Harrington was supposed to die in season one of the show.
In a recent interview showrunners, Matt and Ross Duffer revealed that they originally wanted to kill Steve(Joe Keery) in Season one of the show but changed their minds after watching Keery's take on the character.
When the first season of Stranger Things premiered on Netflix on July 15, 2016, it began a worldwide phenomenon and one of the biggest successes for the streaming giant.
In season one of the show, Steve was written as the typical 80s high school bully, who was dating Nancy Wheeler(Natalia Dyer), and initially, he is shown as a jealous and shallow person.
but his friendship with the young Dustin Henderson(Gaten Matarazzo) led him to become the designated babysitter of the group who would often rush into danger to protect his friends, especially his close friend Dustin.
would turn him into one of the most popular characters on the show.
according to the Duffer Brothers, this was mostly due to actor Joe Keery and his performance, in season one the initial idea was for Jonathan's dad to save the kids during the fight with The Demogorgon.
While it wasn't planned out exactly when the character was supposed to die, in a recent interview with Rotten Tomatoes during Geek Week the showrunners revealed that it was supposed to happen.
"When he comes back and fights the Demogorgon, that was supposed to be Jonathan’s dad... You’re learning what works and what doesn’t work. The cast is impacting where you take the narrative, the other writers and directors … it’s this living thing"
It would be hard to imagine the show without Steve now, he would go to play a very prominent role in the following seasons of the show. Even in the first part of the fourth season of the show.
Which premiered on Netflix on May 27th he would play an important role in the fight against Vecna as well as still serving as the group's official babysitter.
The second part of season 4 will stream on Netflix on July 1st.