Who’s Most — And Least — Likely To Die In Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2
Here's who is most at risk
The end is near and the Duffer brothers’ promise that the final season would deliver “the most violent death” the show has ever shown is coming closer and closer.
Volume 1 also fulfilled the promise of finally aiming to fill holes in every mystery. It rewrote what we thought we knew about Vecna, re-established Will as more than a survivor, left Max and Holly trapped inside a memory-dream, and sent the Hawkins war into full-on carnage.
But if Stranger Things really is going to kill a major character — not a Barb, Bob, Eddie, or Chrissy stand-in — the question isn’t just who. It’s why now, and what kind of ending the show actually wants.
Now, with Volume 2 arriving in less than a week, here is who we think is most to least likely to die. And I swear to god if its Steve, I will be the grinch who ruins Christmas for all.
Will Byers — Most likely to die
We saw Volume 1 rewrite Will’s place in the mythology: the season opens with a flashback only days after his disappearance in 1983 that ties him to the Upside Down’s earliest moves, and every episode since has suggested Vecna has known and used Will for decades. Importantly for stakes, Episode 4 ends with Will actively tapping into Vecna’s power in the field—an explicit, on-screen moment in which Will’s body convulses and Vecna appears amid the chaos, implying Will is not merely a victim but an operational conduit. That physical, narratively central link is the exact kind of “life-or-death” vulnerability that explains why showrunners have staged Will as a linchpin: if Vecna can use the person closest to the heroes to open and control portals, killing or sacrificing Will is both narratively efficient and dramatically devastating.
Also, Vecna’s explicit “you’re useful to me” framing is the most direct theatrical setup for a sacrificial arc.
Eleven — Most likely to die
If Stranger Things ends the only way it logically can — with the Upside Down erased forever — then Eleven is the character most at risk.
Her death has been foreshadowed since the very beginning. The original ending of Season 1 had Eleven sacrificing herself permanently; the Duffers have since said everything would “come back full circle.” Brenner explicitly warned in Season 2 that her powers would eventually kill her. Every season reinforces the same visual language: the nosebleeds, the seizures, the way her body visibly deteriorates the harder she pushes.
Season 5 intensifies this idea. Eleven isn’t just fighting Vecna — she is ontologically linked to the supernatural world. The Upside Down exists because of her. If the infection must be purged, the host may not survive.
There’s also a mythic logic at play. The ending many fans keep circling — Eleven dying or choosing exile while the world heals — mirrors Frodo sailing west at the end of The Lord of the Rings. Not erased, not forgotten, but removed. The idea that the show might end with Mike communicating with her spirit — perhaps through Morse code, the language of their childhood bond — fits Stranger Things’ obsession with love persisting beyond physical presence.
Also, Season 5 is explicitly built as the final confrontation that ties Eleven’s arc to Vecna’s origins and the “loss of childhood” theme the Duffers have repeatedly cited. That centrality cuts both ways: killing Eleven would be the ultimate “dark” choice, thematically logical (end the kid’s story). Devastating for Hopper, who already believes himself cursed to lose daughters. But narratively? It makes painful sense. If the Duffers want an ending that feels earned, mythic, and final — Eleven is the sacrifice that closes the gate forever.
Max Mayfield — Likely to die
Max’s situation in Volume 1 is the classic “liminal death”: her body is comatose in the real world while her consciousness is trapped inside Vecna’s memory-realm. Stranger Things has already used this mechanic as a near-fatal device. The show now gives us a character who’s physically alive but narratively absent—a perfect candidate for either a tragic permanent death (the friends try and fail to pull her back) or an emotional fakeout that seals the stakes. The series’ emotional engine has long relied on Max’s arc—and Season 5 treats her specifically as a target for Vecna’s memory-attacks—so her survival or death will be used to deliver maximum catharsis.
Nancy Wheeler — Might die
If Steve Harrington is the death everyone expects, Nancy Wheeler is the one that might actually happen. Nancy is uniquely positioned as a tragic hero. She carries unresolved guilt over Barb’s death. She’s defined by responsibility, by stepping forward when others hesitate. And unlike most of the cast, the Wheelers have not yet suffered a defining loss. Mike, for all his emotional weight in the series, has never lost someone irrevocably.
Killing Nancy would do several things at once: firstly, it resolves the Steve/Jonathan love triangle without choosing sides. It delivers a heroic, self-sacrifical death that feels consistent with Nancy’s character. It also avoids retreading Dustin’s grief or Joyce’s parental trauma.
And from a writing perspective, Nancy’s death would hurt — but not destabilize the entire emotional ecosystem the way killing Joyce, Will, or Eleven outright might. It would be bold. It would be devastating. And it would finally prove the show is willing to cross a line it has flirted with for years.
Steve Harrington — Might die
Honestly, Steve Harrington seems like the most obvious choice here. Especially if you want to piss off a whole fandom, but also engrave his name as a forever hero in everyone’s books. Sort of like, Iron Man?
Steve is the group’s surrogate big brother to Dustin Eddie Munson’s death in S4 showed the Duffers will kill beloved, sympathetic characters if it serves a larger motif; killing Steve would deliver maximum emotional shock because he’s both beloved and narratively central to Dustin’s moral core. The trailer coverage and early reactions (some press calling moments like “You die, I die” crucial) suggest the show is priming for sacrificial two-handed beats between paired characters. A Steve death would be the kind of “heroic, gutting” moment the show could position as the season’s single most violent, meaningful casualty.
Conversely, Steve Harrington feels like the obvious choice — which is exactly why his death may be a misdirect.
Yes, he’s heroic. Yes, he’s beloved. Yes, he would die saving the kids. But Stranger Things already gave Dustin a defining grief arc with Eddie. Killing Steve would double-dip emotionally, repeating the same beat with a different face — something the Duffers usually avoid.
Steve’s absence from trailers may be intentional misdirection. His ongoing tension with Dustin suggests unresolved conflict — which typically signals survival, not death. The show likes to fix relationships before it breaks them permanently.
That said, if the Duffers want the single most emotionally violent death possible — Steve is still the nuclear option. His odds are high. They’re just not inevitable.
Holly Wheeler — Might die
Holly’s abduction is treated not as a side gag but as a plot anchor. Episode titles and recaps (Volume 1 opens that storyline prominently) designate her disappearance—The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler—as a named cliffhanger, meaning the writers intentionally put a Wheeler child directly into Vecna’s reach. When a show names an episode after a character’s disappearance, that character isn’t being used as filler; they’re the immediate emotional currency the finale can spend. In other words: Holly’s kid status makes her death especially traumatic for Hawkins and a likely candidate if the Duffers choose to make a parental-loss moment count.
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Jonathan Byers — Low chances of dying
If the show insists on a Byers family survival ending — and it likely does — Jonathan becomes the tragic compromise.
Jonathan sacrificing himself to save Will is narratively clean. It completes his long arc as protector. It allows Will to live without Joyce enduring the unbearable cruelty of losing another child. And it gives Jonathan a purpose-driven end after several seasons of narrative drift.
Importantly, Jonathan’s death would devastate Joyce — but not destroy her in the way losing Will would. The show has always treated Will as the emotional axis of the Byers family. Protecting that bond may be non-negotiable.
If a core teen dies without unraveling the show’s emotional resolution, Jonathan is the most plausible candidate.
Dustin Henderson — Low chances of dying
Dustin is the heart of the friend circle. Narrative logic gives the younger, joke-heavy character emotional space to outlive big, plot-heavy losses precisely because his continued presence softens the show’s darker turns. If Steve dies, Dustin’s arc would be the obvious place for long-term fallout (grief, rage), which is why killing Steve would produce the most story—via Dustin—rather than demand Dustin’s own death. The show likes to put Dustin in harm’s way, but historically he leaves big set-pieces alive.
Joyce Byers — Low chances of dying
Joyce is the narrative moral center and one of the adult characters most likely to survive for the show’s emotional denouement. The Duffers use parental stamina and love as recurring motifs (Joyce has been that motif since S1), and killing her would remove a stabilizing force needed to shepherd the kids into whatever post-battle life awaits. She will be in the trenches, of course—she’s never been a purely passive parent—but both theme and franchise economics argue for her survival.
Jim Hopper — Low chances of dying
Hopper is the rare Stranger Things character whose death would feel not tragic, but redundant. The show already spent an entire season mourning him. Season 3 staged his sacrifice as definitive; Season 4 devoted enormous narrative real estate to undoing it. That alone is a strong storytelling signal: if Hopper were meant to die, the show already found its moment — and then chose to take it back.
More importantly, Hopper’s emotional function in the story has fundamentally shifted. He is no longer just the gruff sheriff; he is the living proof that this world allows second chances. His survival is narratively tied to Joyce’s endurance and Eleven’s healing. Killing Hopper now would not “raise stakes” — it would flatten the emotional resolution the series has been carefully rebuilding since Season 4.
There’s also the matter of the curse. Hopper believes everyone close to him is doomed: his daughter Sara, his colleagues, his partners. The show has repeatedly framed that belief as something Hopper must unlearn. Letting him survive — to see Hawkins safe, to raise Eleven without fear, to finally stop bracing for loss — is the completion of his arc. From a structural standpoint, Hopper also functions as a bridge between the kids’ supernatural war and the adult world’s aftermath.
The finale will need someone grounded, battered, and morally clear to anchor whatever “life after the Upside Down” looks like. Hopper is that character. If Stranger Things ends with hope — and all signs suggest it will — Hopper does not die. He stays. He bears witness. And for once, he gets to live.
Murray Bauman — Wildcard (lean safe)
Murray’s comic-relief + unexpected courage makes him a sentimental favorite authors can use for a heroic moment. He’s been positioned repeatedly as the oddball who sacrifices for the greater good; he could die for pathos. But he’s also a convenient vocalizer of plot (exposition, snark), and the Duffers are likely to keep him around long enough to deliver necessary exposition and emotional beats in the finale.