Why Stranger Things fans are '100% convinced' Steve won’t die despite years of theories

The final season of Stranger Things has almost come to a close, with volume two and the finale both set to come out in the next week and a half.

In that time the Netflix series will release four episodes, three of which will be over an hour and the finale of which will be a whopping two hours and eight minutes.

Stranger Things is full top to bottom of fan favourite characters, making the last few episodes especially tense as people wait to find out who lives and who dies in the final few instalments of the show.

Chief among these is Steve Harrington however, a character who has grown from fairly generic ‘cool’ kid into the protector of the party and stand in father-figure to Dustin.

Since the very beginning of the TV show basically, fans have suggested that each following season was ‘definitely’ going to be the one where they finally kill off Steve.

This has reached a fever pitch with season five of the show, particularly with Volume Two’s trailer heavily focusing on Steve and Dustin echoing a quote from season three of the show, ‘you die, I die’.

Despite the years of fan theories that he is going to die in the show however, fans have now changed their tunes and are essentially ‘100 percent convinced’ that Steve is going to make it through the end of season five unscathed.

One fan posted to the Stranger Things Reddit community, saying: “He is safe simply because Eddie’s arc exists.

“After what happened to Eddie, killing Steve would literally traumatize Dustin and no way the Duffers would do that. It would leave such a stain on the series.”

Others chimed in in the comments, with one popular comment saying: “Totally agree. Steve's arc is about purpose and belonging and it's not yet resolved.

Steve and Robin in season five (Netflix)

“To kill Steve while Dustin is already mourning a brother-like figure would be senseless and not add anything to the plot besides to stir emotions.”

Another put it far plainer, saying: “Steve is not dying because everyone has predicted it since s2. it would be lazy writing!!!”

Ironically the Duffer brothers have confirmed in a previous book about the making of Stranger Things that Steve was originally meant to die in season one as a simple bully, but Joe Keery’s charisma convinced them to keep the character around.

The showrunners also dropped a hint that they might kill him off in season five, but that has just further convinced fans that he’s actually safe.

Many fans pointed out how Eddie's death in season 4 would achieve the same purpose as a Steve death in season five (Netflix)

When asked about rumours Steve is a goner, Ross Duffer said: “We like to beat him up every year. We usually give him a black eye or something, so I guess the next step would be death.”

One fan quoted this on X, saying: “Everyone relax they didn’t even have the guts to kill off ted wheeler steve is fine.”

Another fan on X said: “So he’s confirmed surviving…If Robin dies for this istg.”

Stranger Things season five volume two releases on Netflix December 25 at 5pm PST, 1am the following day in the UK.