Bob was never meant to last so long in Stranger Things 2

Stranger Things producers reveal that Bob had a very different fate in Stranger Things 2

Every now and then there are secrets that come about about beloved television shows and movies that change the way you see them. More often than fans know, showrunners and writers often have different plans for characters than what we see play out. Such is the case for Stranger Things 2 and Bob, played impeccably by Sean Astin. Originally, Bob was never meant to last as long as he did in the beloved Netflix show.

In a 2017 interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Stranger Things producers Dan Cohen and Shawn Levy reveal that Bob was supposed to meet his end much sooner. “The death of Bob was initially much sooner,” Levy said. “In fact, in an earlier outline, Evil Will killed him in like Episode 3.”

Eventually, they changed tactics and decided to incorporate Bob into more of the story so that when he did die, it served a bigger purpose. “We wanted to keep him alive longer, and then use his death as Joyce’s engine,” Levy continued. “The avenging of that would become Joyce’s engine for the finale.”

It’s an interesting tidbit for Stranger Things fans to know that Bob’s fate wasn’t determined in advance and that it changed over the course of development. As is the case with the so-called Butterfly Effect, where one incident leads to a series of outcomes, killing Bob earlier might not have done for Joyce what it eventually did.

By the time Bob died, Will was clearly trapped in the grips of his evil counterpart and when Bob dies it removes any doubt from Joyce’s mind that her son is not the person he once was. If not for that, she might never have seen that drastic measures needed to be taken against Evil Will so get her real son back.

What do you think about this revelation? Does it change the way you see Bob’s character in Stranger Things 2? Let us know in the comments!