STRANGER THINGS Creators Explain Why Demogorgons Were Missing From the Final Battle and I'm Not Buying It
The series finale of Stranger Things finally delivered the long-awaited showdown with Vecna, dropping the heroes into The Abyss for a surreal, and what should’ve been a crazy endgame.
The battle sprawled across that desolate alternate dimension, dipped deep into Vecna’s fractured psyche, and unleashed a massive, nightmarish spider-monster version of the Mind Flayer.
What it didn’t include was something fans expected to see charging in at any moment. No Demogorgons. No Demodogs. And now the creators are explaining why.
Over the course of the series, those creatures were Vecna’s go-to foot soldiers, so their absence in the biggest fight of the show immediately stood out, espcially since he’s alwasy used them!
In a recent interview with The Wrap, Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer broke down the thinking behind that decision, and the reasoning feels a little too convenient for me.
Matt explained that the final battle was meant to catch Vecna completely off guard. According to him, Vecna simply didn’t have time to unleash an army.
“Mainly it’s just that Vecna was not expecting this sneak attack on his home turf. Never in a million years could he even imagine that. They’re there somewhere.
“We obviously discussed having a demo battle on top of the Mind Flayer battle, but it felt more right to us that why does he need the demos when the Mind Flayer is this giant thing and can attack them? He doesn’t need his little ant army to attack, he’s going to take care of this himself.”
But, the thing is he did need them. He’s always needed them! Why stop using them at this point? It seems so ridiculous.
Matt also leaned into the idea that The Abyss itself isn’t exactly crawling with monsters waiting to swarm.
“It’s a giant, desolate planet. If you recall, you see Henry wandering the planet back in Season 4 and at some point in his journey, he does see a demo far in the distance, but it’s not like they’re hanging out in little huts. There’s not like a giant civilization of demos up there.”
That explanation might track on a lore level, but Matt offered another reason that feels far more practical and a lot less satisfying. According to him, the show may have simply used up all the Demogorgon tricks it had left.
“One of the other things we talked about was just demo fatigue. I felt like we did everything we wanted to do with them in ‘Sorcerer,’ and wanting to keep the focus on Vecna and the Mind Flayer, who’s been absent this season.”
From a storytelling standpoint, keeping the spotlight on Vecna and the Mind Flayer does make sense. They are the true endgame villains. Still, calling it “demo fatigue” is probably going to rub fans the wrong way, especially when this was the final chapter and anything goes.
Interestingly, the Duffers also revealed that an even creepier idea was discussed and ultimately scrapped. It would’ve added a very familiar sci-fi horror vibe to The Abyss.
Matt said: “We did at some point have that they were going to come across a giant field of demo eggs in kind of an ‘Aliens’ thing, but you can’t get all your ideas in there. You remember the eggs?”
Ross then said: “Yeah that’s in the three-hour version of the finale, which was never written.” Matt added, “Were they going to come out of the eggs? I can’t remember”, to which Ross said, “Yeah”.
That sequence alone would’ve added some interesting nightmare fuel and a killer nod to classic sci-fi horror. It also would’ve gone a long way toward making The Abyss feel more alive and dangerous, even if the Demogorgons didn’t fully join the fight.
In the end, the final battle was big and visually wild, and emotionally charged. But, it also played things super safe as there was no real stakes. Calling it demo fatigue feels like a safe answer, and maybe even a cop out, for a show that usually swings big when it matters most.
