Is It Just Me, Or Is Eleven’s Fate In Stranger Things Giving Serious Wicked Vibes?

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Be warned: This contains spoilers for the final episodes of both Stranger Things and Wicked: For Good! You can watch Stranger Things on Netflix if you have a subscription. If you’re interested in Wicked, you can purchase or rent it.

I never connected Stranger Things and Wicked before December 31st, 2025. But after finishing the Netflix series, I immediately noticed striking similarities between its ending—especially what happens to Eleven—and the conclusion of Wicked: For Good. Let’s explore those connections.

Eleven And Elphaba’s Fates Are So Similar

As you likely know if you’ve been following Stranger Things, Eleven’s ultimate fate is unclear at the end of Season 5. Many believe she died when the Upside Down was destroyed, but Mike suggests a different possibility for her survival in the show’s final moments.

Mike believes Eleven disappeared during the chaos of the Upside Down collapsing, using the confusion to escape the military. Kali helped her hide by making her invisible and getting her to safety. No one knows Eleven is still alive or where she went, but Mike hopes she’s in a lovely, distant place. The show then reveals Eleven walking towards a quiet town with waterfalls, where she finds a sense of peace – and this is the hopeful story Mike and his friends choose to believe.

That story reminded me a lot of the ending of Wicked: For Good. I even joked to my brother while watching Stranger Things that maybe Mike got the idea for the musical from somewhere else!

The ending of Wicked: For Good reveals that Elphaba didn’t actually melt when the water was thrown on her. Instead, she used a hidden trap door to escape and survive. Only Fiyero knows the truth, and together they leave Oz, leaving Glinda believing her friend is gone.

Even though Elphaba is clearly still alive, and Eleven’s future is uncertain, the endings of their stories feel remarkably alike. It’s also great that the creators of Stranger Things didn’t notice these similarities until a fan pointed them out.

How The Duffer Brothers Reacted To This Wicked Comparison

Both the highly-rated Wicked: For Good and the last season of Stranger Things were released near the end of 2025, which made the similarities in their conclusions noticeable to me. However, these weren’t planned connections. When Josh Horowitz of the Happy Sad Confused podcast brought it up to the Duffer brothers, Matt Duffer explained that a friend had actually pointed out the parallels to him, saying:

I recently watched the movie Wicked. I wasn’t aware of the backstory film, Wicked: For Good, and this was my first time experiencing the story – which was great!

So, in the end, it truly is just a coincidence, and I love it.

I’ve been thinking about how similar Stranger Things and Wicked are, and you really should check them both out if you want to see what I mean. You can stream Stranger Things on Netflix, watch the first Wicked movie with an Amazon Prime subscription, and then rent For Good. Seriously, once you’ve seen them all, I think you’ll notice the connections – it’s like the creators were on the same wavelength!

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2026-01-11 19:08