“Guys, it’s over. It’s been 10 years. We were full-on kids and now we’re full-on adults, and we don’t need any more of us.”

Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin calls finale fan theory ‘dumb’ and weighs in on Eleven’s fate

"Guys, it's over. It's been 10 years. We were full-on kids and now we're full-on adults, and we don’t need any more of us."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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February 12, 2026 6:03 p.m. ET

Caleb McLaughlin in 'Stranger Things' season 5. Credit:

- Caleb McLaughlin says that he thought the *Stranger Things* "Conformity Gate" theory was "dumb."

- "The show is done, guys," he said. "We don't need any more of us."

- McLaughlin also shared his opinion on Eleven's fate: "I'm so sorry."

Caleb McLaughlin doesn't agree with your optimistic *Stranger Things* fan theories.

The *Goat* star, who played Lucas Sinclair in all five seasons of the hit sci-fi series, shared his two cents on the "Conformity Gate" theory that led some fans to believe that there was a secret extra episode that would premiere after the 2-hour series finale.

"At first, I thought the 'Conformity Gate' theory was dumb," McLaughlin told *THR*. "I get that people want to live in this optimistic place of, 'Oh, we want more *Stranger Things*,' but the show is done, guys. I was like, 'Guys, it's over. It's been 10 years. We were full-on kids, and now we're full-on adults, and we don't need any more of us.'"

Caleb McLaughlin attends the 'Stranger Things' season 5 premiere in Los Angeles on Nov. 6, 2025.

Jerod Harris/Getty

The theory's proponents hypothesized that the supersized finale, which provided a definitive happy ending for almost every character in the show, was actually an elaborate illusion concocted by the villainous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).

McLaughlin explained his perspective on showrunners Ross and Matt Duffer's priorities.

"The Duffers, our wonderful, amazing creators, wanted to leave everybody with this level of optimism that the show has always given everyone," he says. "So if they left the show without that, we would have left *Stranger Things* without the true essence of what we've been representing forever."

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The actor elaborated on how the last scene of the finale, which saw the core characters finish a *Dungeons & Dragons* campaign led by Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), brings the show to a fitting full circle conclusion.

"We started off season one playing *Dungeons & Dragons*, and we ended just like that," he said. "And Mike's storytelling and writing ability [that's rooted in *D&D*] is how the show should have ended."

Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink, and Caleb McLaughlin in 'Stranger Things' season 5.

The *Deliverance* actor also said that fans misinterpreted Mike's proposal that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) faked her own death.

"I think people missed the concept of what the show is when they were like 'Oh, there's going to be more,'" he said. "No, that's just Mike's imagination. That's who he's always been, even in season 1. It's all just storytelling."

McLaughlin later weighed in on whether he thinks Eleven survived the finale.

"She's gone," he opined. "I'm so sorry. I think she evaporated."

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*Stranger Things*' creators previously told ** that they conceived the idea for the series finale very early in the creative process.

"It was always gonna end in a *D&D* campaign and then leaving and shutting the door on their childhood," Ross Duffer said. "That's been planned for eight years."

Matt Duffer reiterated, "The final episode is, in fact, the end of this story for these characters. So it's highly emotional."

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