Stranger Things creators explain Eleven's fate after divisive series finale leaves fans confused

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Stranger Things finale.

The creators of Stranger Things have addressed Eleven's 'ambiguous' ending as the series came to an end after almost ten years.

Whether you're a fan of the series or not, you'll have likely heard all about Stranger Things and it recently concluded on Netflix.

The show drew to a close in a two-hour finale that aired on December 31 (or the early hours of January 1 in some parts of the world).

Now, a lot of us would have liked Stranger Things to be wrapped up neatly with a bow, but the creators of the show, Ross and Matt Duffer, had other plans.

In the divisive finale, Millie Bobbie Brown's character Eleven, who is lovingly known as El by her Hawkins pals, seemingly dies when the Upside Down is blown up and destroyed.

The main gateway to the Upside Down is destroyed with El inside in the finale (Netflix)

But in the final scenes of the show, Mike shares another theory about El and what really happened to her.

Mike's theory about Eleven

Mike suggests that El and her sister Kali hatched a plan different from their original one to both die together and that before Kali died from gunshot wounds, she created an illusion of El at the gate of the Upside Down while her younger sibling escaped without being noticed.

The finale then shows Eleven alive and well, hiking up a mountain.

Max, Dustin, Will, and Lucas all heartwarmingly say 'I believe' when it came to Mike's more optimistic outcome for their friend.

No, you cried.

What the Duffer Brothers said of Eleven's fate

Addressing why they decided to leave Eleven's fate subject to interpretation, Matt Duffer told Tudum: "What we wanted to do was confront the reality of what her situation was after all of this and how could she live a normal life. These are the questions that we’ve been posing this season that Hopper just doesn’t even want to think or talk about.

"Mike’s obviously talked about it a lot, but it’s sort of this fantasy version that would never work. There are two roads that Eleven could take. There’s this darker, more pessimistic one or the optimistic, hopeful one. Mike is the optimist of the group and has chosen to believe in that story."

Mike puts forward the idea that El actually survived and that she was living in a small village (Netflix)

Ross Duffer went on to add: "There was never a version of the story where Eleven was hanging out with the gang at the end.

"For us and our writers, we didn’t want to take her powers away. She represents magic in a lot of ways and the magic of childhood. For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away.

"We thought it would be beautiful if our characters continued to believe in that happier ending even if we didn’t give them a clear answer to whether that’s true or not. The fact that they’re believing in it, we just thought it was such a better way to end the story and a better way to represent the closure of this journey and their journey from children to adults."