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For fans with a Netflix subscription, the end of Stranger Things was emotional enough on its own. But, apparently, Millie Bobby Brown had already been carrying those feelings around for quite some time. In fact, she recently revealed that she spent season 5's press tour mourning the character as part of what she considered to be a funeral for Eleven. And, honestly, I can't believe I didn't realize this while she was promoting those final episodes.
Brown recently appeared on Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce and opened up about life after Stranger Things, motherhood and returning for Enola Holmes 3. The young star discussed grieving the end of Stranger Things and calling her castmates after the final season wrapped. With that, Brown revealed one clothing-related way she mourned her character:
I had a bit of a lull in who I was, like it was — It feels like grieving. And I think what was hard is that I knew what was happening. I knew the end, and I couldn't tell anyone. And I wore black the whole press tour because of the funeral of her. And yet I didn't feel it as much until everyone else found out. And then feeling everyone else's grief made me like who like, it was too much.
That series of black ensembles is a surprisingly touching detail. At the time, many fans probably just thought Brown was embracing a fashion choice. Unbeknownst to me and likely others, she was quietly saying goodbye to the character she’d been playing for much of her young life. She was only 12 years old when the first season premiered, meaning she essentially grew up alongside the series and its cast. Unsurprisingly, she admitted the ending brought up fears that went beyond simply leaving a job.
Brown said that after filming wrapped, she immediately reached out to her fellow Stranger Things cast members, because she worried their relationships might somehow disappear with the show. She recalled:
And then I just immediately started calling every cast member, just like — we're like, ‘You're still gonna be in my life, right?’ Like I was really, really scared that I was like, it was over, and I just kept crying. I kept crying. That is like multiple layers of grief.
That's understandable. For Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Sadie Sink, Stranger Things wasn't just a television series. It was their childhood.
The cast spent nearly a decade together. Entire stages of their lives happened while making the show. Walking away from that probably feels less like finishing a project and more like leaving home.
Brown also revealed something unexpected about how some fans have reacted to the series’ controversial ending. While she used to hear people recognize her as Eleven everywhere she went, the conversation has shifted. Finally, she added:
I used to get, ‘Oh, are you Eleven from Stranger Things?’ And, now, I get, ‘I believe.’ I get people saying that they believe she's still alive. So it's a really beautiful [thing], which also just evokes a lot of emotion for me.
There is something lovely about that. Instead of simply accepting the ending, fans are choosing hope. Stranger Things has always been about friendship, resilience and refusing to give up on the people you love, so maybe it is fitting that viewers are extending that same optimism to El.
As for Brown, saying goodbye to Hawkins clearly involved more tears than fans realized. Looking back, those black press-tour outfits were not just fashion choices. They were a quiet clue that she was already mourning Eleven before everyone else knew they would have to say goodbye, too.
All five seasons of Stranger Things are available to stream on Netflix and, in terms of something more recent, Enola Holmes 3 hits the Netflix streaming schedule on July 1.
