{"id":498118,"date":"2026-05-22T22:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/498118\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T22:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T22:22:11","slug":"somehow-the-stranger-things-folks-are-still-being-asked-about-conformity-gate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/498118\/","title":{"rendered":"Somehow, the ‘Stranger Things’ Folks Are Still Being Asked About ‘Conformity Gate’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stranger Things signed off at the start of the year and left no shortage of controversy<\/a> in its wake. The outcry grew so loud that some fans started a viral theory<\/a> that a secret bonus episode was about to drop. But though \u201cConformity Gate<\/a>\u201d was a myth\u2014the best Netflix could do was that behind-the-scenes doc<\/a>; there was also a Saturday Night Live skit<\/a>\u2014that didn\u2019t prevent the Stranger Things cast and crew from being asked about it. A lot.<\/p>\n

And now, many months later, it seems there\u2019s still curiosity about the finale. Not regarding the ninth episode, which we know by now doesn\u2019t exist, or the actual finale\u2019s biggest takeaways, like whether or not Eleven is actually dead. Rather, it\u2019s about how the people involved in Stranger Things felt about the whole kerfuffle.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> caught up with a few Hawkins escapees at a recent \u201cFor Your Consideration\u201d event, and we now have even more reactions to add to the pile.<\/p>\n

Executive producer Shawn Levy called the \u201cwishful thinking\u201d about episode nine \u201cbaffling.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that \u201cthe internet and social media is this sort of self-fueling machine of theory and story. I felt bad for the world, because they really believed; as much as I believe that Eleven is still alive somewhere by those waterfalls, the world seemed to really believe for a while in that extra episode. I knew they were going to get their hearts broken by its absence, but there was nothing I could do to spare them that pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the cast, who are probably sick of thinking about Stranger Things at this point, much less a piece of Stranger Things that doesn\u2019t exist, they had even more spirited things to say. Jamie Campbell Bower, Vecna himself, called the speculation \u201cfucking crazy,\u201d while Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) recalled being inundated with texts demanding to know if episode nine was real or not.<\/p>\n

For his part, Levy was also able to see an upside to the situation. \u201cYou\u2019ll never satisfy everyone, but it feels like we satisfied most. That\u2019s better than most series I can think of, especially ones with this kind of fan base, which is ferocious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stranger Things signed off at the start of the year and left no shortage of controversy in its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,127,27613,128],"class_list":["post-498118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-netflix","tag-stranger-things","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116620568023699660","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}