Millie Bobby Brown on Eleven’s Fate, Stranger Things Ending and cast

There’s an unwritten golden rule in TV: a character is never really dead unless you see the body.

That’s why many ‘Stranger Things’ fans still believe Eleven survived the series finale, which ends with Mike Wheeler imagining a future where she survives the final confrontation with Vecna ​​in the Upside Down.

It was also inevitable that Millie Bobby Brown would be confronted with that question during her first major press tour after the end of ‘Stranger Things’. During a live taping of “Happy Sad Confused” on 92NY, Josh Horowitz playfully prodded Brown about Eleven’s fate in what will likely be the first round of many similar moments she’ll face for the rest of her career — or at least until the Duffer brothers allow her to break her pact.

Brown told Horowitz that after the finale aired, the co-creators texted her to remind her not to reveal Eleven’s fate to the rest of the world.

“They said, ‘Don’t tell anyone. Because we made it a secret promise,'” Brown said Wednesday night. “Nobody else knows. It’s just the three of us. And what we do with that information is up to them.”

Brown, along with her husband, Jake Bongiovi, watched the reactions pour in online after the finale began on New Year’s Eve. Fans weren’t the only ones left in the dark — her castmates also had differing opinions on what really happened to Eleven.

“Jake said, ‘Ooh, these are really split.’ And the whole cast thinks I’m dead,” Brown said playfully. “One, rude. It’s so rude of them. There’s definitely something to it. You’re projecting! It’s like, ‘Hey guys, we get it. You want me dead!’ But I thought, ‘Faith!’ Let’s have some hope here.”

David Harbour, who played Hawkins police chief (and El’s father figure) Jim Hopper on the series, said in his Variety cover story interview that her death was clear from the start. “A lot of people think she might be in Spain or whatever,” he said. “But from the very beginning of that series, we love this little girl, but you really can’t have a little girl in Hawkins, Indiana, with supernatural forces running around. She just can’t exist.”

Sadie Sink was just as sure during an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”: “Is that a good choice or something? Mike’s story is just one last story, and then they say goodbye to childhood. That’s one last story, and that’s it. It’s just a matter of coping. It’s stronger.” [that way]right?”

Not everyone however, the cast agrees. During a recent fan appearance at PeopleCon, Noah Schnapp the audience asked if anyone believed Eleven was dead. After a few mumbles, he wagged his finger and said, “No, she’s alive,” giving a thumbs up and a smile to the crowd.

Horowitz did the same during the live podcast recording with Brown, and about 80 to 90 percent of the audience said they believed Eleven was still alive. “We have a hopeful audience,” Brown said. “I love that!”

When pressed again on the question, Brown concluded, “All the people now say, ‘Do you believe?’ And of course I believe. To be honest, I have to believe in it, otherwise January will come again.”

Brown was referring to the post-‘Stranger Things’ slump she fell into after the series ended. “I kind of fell into a little bit of a mild, mild depression,” she revealed. “It was very difficult for me. I didn’t expect this to come out of the show. I’m a very cheerful person.”

During that month, Brown said she reconnected with her “Stranger Things” co-stars in January to “repair” any unresolved tensions and reaffirm that their personal relationships would continue even after the series ended.

“They probably thought I was crazy,” Brown said. “I was like, ‘We’re still friends, right? Like, you don’t stop talking to me anymore?’ I was like, ‘I’m sorry if I ever upset you,’ and I was just trying to fix something. “It’s been ten years and I really want to be friends. You are my brother or sister.” And then I was on the beach, it was beautiful, and I just sat there and cried. It was a very difficult time for me.”

“And no one will ever understand,” she continued. “I started the show when I was 10, and this character was me, and these people were more in my life than my own family. I saw these people more than going home and having dinner with my family. Saying goodbye to that after 10 years was very, very emotional, and I will miss Eleven more than anything.”

The Duffer brothers explained it in their final post-mortem interview with Variety‘s Kate Aurthur that despite the deliberately vague circumstances, there was never a version of the script “where the elf was in that basement” playing out a final “Dungeons & Dragons” campaign with her friends. “It was finding a way to come up with an ending that wasn’t so simple,” Ross Duffer said, “but also bittersweet, and that there was hope.”

While the co-creators declined to elaborate further on El’s fate, they did confirm that “Eleven is not communicating with Mike in any way” — and that, even if she were alive, a reunion would be unlikely.

“Any contact would risk her coming out again and starting the cycle again,” Ross continued. “So in the story that Mike tells, I don’t think he sees a version where they reconnect.”

As for the future of “Stranger Things,” Brown teased that plans for a future project with Harbor were “concrete.” When asked for more details, she offered a riddle: “Father-daughter is where we live, but Netflix will always be our home.”

Later in the conversation, Brown said she is “slowly developing things with Netflix, my home studio,” including the rom-com “Just Picture It” with Gabriel LaBelle. She also hinted that the TV series ‘Prism’ may be on hold while she figures out her ‘time and timing’ [her] schedule,” before returning to the project with Harbor.

“The David Harbor project is coming sooner than expected,” she said with a smile. “And it’s David’s idea, so kudos to him.”