Stranger Things Season 5 Finale Had Unwritten Extended Version: “Not Every Idea Fits”

Fans quickly picked up on the absence of demogorgons and demodogs in the finale of Stranger Things season 5, but this wasn’t always the intended outcome. The Duffer Brothers revealed that there was a three-hour version of the finale that originally included these iconic creatures, along with a nod to Aliens.

In a recent interview, the showrunners were asked about the missing demogorgons when the crew arrives at The Abyss in the season’s last episode. Matt Duffer explained that Vecna was caught off guard by the surprise attack on his territory. “Never in a million years could he even imagine that,” he said.

He added, “[The demogorgons] are there somewhere. We obviously discussed having a demo battle on top of the Mind Flayer battle, but it felt more right to us that why does he need the demos when the Mind Flayer is this giant thing and can attack them? He doesn’t need his little ant army to attack; he’s going to take care of this himself. It’s a giant, desolate planet. If you recall, you see Henry wandering the planet back in Season 4, and at some point in his journey, he does see a demo far in the distance, but it’s not like they’re hanging out in little huts. There’s not like a giant civilization of demos up there.”

However, the Duffer Brothers confirmed that there was indeed a version of the finale where the demogorgons made an appearance. “We did at some point have that they were going to come across a giant field of demo eggs in kind of an Aliens thing, but you can’t get all your ideas in there,” Matt explained, with Ross adding, “Yeah, that’s in the three-hour version of the finale, which was never written.”

The plan was for the demogorgons to emerge from the eggs as the gang passed by, but the showrunners were concerned about “demo fatigue,” having already featured the creatures earlier in the season. “One of the other things we talked about was just demo fatigue. I felt like we did everything we wanted to do with them in Sorcerer, and wanting to keep the focus on Vecna and the Mind Flayer, who’s been absent this season,” Ross noted.

The entire Stranger Things series is currently available for streaming.