Spoilers for the series finale of Stranger Things and Wicked: For Good are ahead! If you want to watch the hit show, it’s available with a Netflix subscription. If you are looking for the Wicked sequel, you can buy or rent it.
Up until the last day of 2025, I had never thought about Stranger Things and Wicked at the same time. However, after watching the final minutes of the beloved Netflix series, I can’t stop thinking about how its ending and Eleven’s fate specifically mirror the end of Wicked: For Good. So, let’s talk about why.
Eleven And Elphaba’s Fates Are So Similar
Now, as I’m sure you know if you’re reading this story, Eleven’s fate is left ambiguous at the end of Stranger Things Season 5. It’s believed that she died when they destroyed the Upside Down. However, in the final minutes of the show, Mike shares his alternative theory about how she survived.
In Mike’s mind, Eleven vanished, and the ruckus caused by the Upside Down’s fall gave her a way to escape the military. So, she did it with the assistance of Kali, who helped her become invisible and run away. No one can know El is alive, and no one knows where she is, but Mike said he thinks she’s somewhere “beautiful” and “far away.” The show then cuts to Eleven hiking toward a small town near some waterfalls. There, she’s able to find “peace,” and it’s this story that Mike and his friends choose to believe.
I don’t know about you, but that story is eerily similar to the end of Wicked: For Good. And I did make a joke to my brother while watching Stranger Things that maybe Mike came up with the idea for the musical.
That’s all because at the end of Wicked: For Good, it’s revealed that Elphaba actually survived the bucket of water being thrown on her; she did not melt, she used a trap door to hide. However, no one, except Fiyero, knows that. So, she leaves Oz forever with him, and Glinda stays behind, not knowing that her friend survived.
Now, while Elphaba is definitely alive, and Eleven’s fate is unclear at best, these endings are so undeniably similar. However, I also love that the creators of Stranger Things didn’t realize these parallels until someone told them about it.
How The Duffer Brothers Reacted To This Wicked Comparison
Considering the well-reviewed Wicked: For Good and the final season of Stranger Things both came out during the final months of 2025, it was easy for me to see the connections between their endings. However, these parallels weren’t intentional. During an episode of Happy Sad Confused, Josh Horowitz asked the Duffers about these similar endings. In response, Matt Duffer said a friend informed him of them, before saying:
I saw Wicked. I haven’t seen Wicked: For Good, and I never saw the musical. So, I did not know that. But that’s cool.
So, in the end, it truly is just a coincidence, and I love it.
Now, to go back and see what I mean as I compare Stranger Things to Wicked, you can stream the series on Netflix and the first movie with an Amazon Prime subscription, then you can rent For Good. Trust me, if you do that, you probably won’t be able to unsee the parallels. However, I also think this is a wonderful case of “great minds think alike.”
