Stranger Things season 4 ended on a huge cliffhanger. The characters thought that they had averted disaster and defeated Vecna (Jamie Campbell-Bower), but his plan to open a giant gate to the Upside Down under Hawkins had actually succeeded: Max was clinically dead for a moment, which completed the conditions required to open the portal. Though she was revived by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Max ended up in a coma. The season 5, episode 1 title for Stranger Things is called “The Crawl”, and it appears that the gang is going to have a hard time of things right away.

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During an interview with Elle, Sink said, “I have not read any scripts; I haven’t heard anything. I really want them to tell me what’s happening, because I have a lot of questions. But we’ll get them when we get them. It’s the final season. We’re not rushing anything. We’re going to take their time on this one [and] get it right.”

The Stranger Things creators have shared that the tone of season 5 will be very dark, and they’ve claimed that executives actually cried during the pitch meeting for the seasons. That leaves open the possibility that Max will, indeed, die. In season 3, it was thought that Hopper (David Harbour) had died, but the Duffer Bros. quickly put out a teaser that showed Hopper would be alive (but not well) in season 4 when they released that filming was going to take longer than anticipated. No such teaser has come forward about Max’s fate.

Harbour has stated that Stranger Things season 5 is a “home run”, so it does appear that he may know a bit more than Sink does. While it’s certainly possible that Max may die, a “home run” would stay true to the themes of the series. That would mean that it would be unlikely that Max dies in season 5; the death of a child has been covered in the series before, and the consequences are devastating. Max’s mother, Susan (Jennifer Marshall), was in a difficult situation last season, having already lost her stepson Billy (Dacre Montgomery), she was working two jobs and living in poverty. Killing off Max may be a touch too cruel for the series.

Harbour also revealed that Stranger Things season 5 starts filming next year, which isn’t far off. That’s a pretty big window of time, but it’s probably likely that the cast will film closer to the first half of 2023 than the second half. Max’s fate may be known soon as pictures of filming come out - that is, if Sink films outdoors.

Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.

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Source: Elle