Charlie Heaton has shared his thoughts on Eleven’s emotional ending in Stranger Things.
Weighing in on the fan debate over whether the character survived the series finale, in a new interview with Us Weekly, the 31-year-old actor discussed Mike’s perspective on what really happened to Eleven, who is played by Millie Bobby Brown, after the events of season 5.
“I love that for Mike, that’s what he tells us, you know, that’s coping, right?” Heaton told the outlet.
At the end of the hit Netflix series, Mike suggested that Eleven’s goodbye was not because she was dying, but because she planned to run away.
He expressed belief that she ultimately made her way to a land with three waterfalls because he had promised they would find once their battle was over.
Mike also made it clear that his explanation is only a theory, leading him and his friends to each declare, “I believe.”
Reflecting on the meaning behind that moment, Heaton explained what resonates most with him about the ending.
“The stories that we choose to believe and the versions of our reality that we choose to believe to cope.”
“and I think it’s really beautiful,” he concluded.
