WARNING, spoilers ahead: After Stranger Things 4 had its monster sized, two-episode finale on Friday, the series’ writers took to Twitter to reveal three moments from that finale that weren’t in the script.
At one point, Winona Ryder’s Joyce sees off David Harbour’s Hopper, who’s on his way to battle the prison’s Demogorgon. She asks him to be careful in his errand, noting that she doesn’t want to hold a second funeral for him. In that moment, they share a tender kiss.
“This kiss wasn’t scripted,” said a tweet from the Stranger Things writers’ account. “Winona and David added it on the day of filming.”
This kiss wasn’t scripted, Winona and David added it on the day of filming pic.twitter.com/9vSWwYliWU
— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) July 2, 2022
Another post indicated that the moment between Eddie (played by Joseph Quinn) says, “I love you, man” to Dustin (played by Gaten Matarazzo) was not planned, either.
“‘I love you, man’ was improvised by Joe,” the writers revealed.
“I love you, man” was improvised by Joe pic.twitter.com/z5gYyl18KF
— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) July 2, 2022
And finally the moment where Lucas — as he’s being battered by Jason — pleads, “Erica, help” was improvised by the actor himself, Caleb McLaughlin.
“Erica, help” was improvised by Caleb. pic.twitter.com/9g5etO5VAz
— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) July 2, 2022
That sort of collaboration is not unusual on the set of the show created by Matt and Ross Duffer according to Sadie Sink — who plays Max — even with the younger cast members. She described her experience to Deadline this week.
“What all the kids have loved about the Duffers is that they never once treated us any differently than they would an adult cast member,” said Sink. “Like, they really respected and valued our opinions and created a really fun environment. They never undermined us in any way and really just listened to us and collaborated with us.”