Stranger Things is over after five seasons and almost ten years. The finale was released on New Year’s Eve. Series Creators The Duffer Brothers have made their press rounds and answered the lingering questions that fans have been asking.

Spoiler alert for the following information.

Whether Eleven is alive or not. She is not reuniting with Mike. 

The Duffers made it fairly clear that The Party will not be reuniting with their Mage. At the end of the story, Eleven has chosen to stop the cycle, and seeing Mike would risk her capture and a new series of government experiments. Eleven’s fate is left ambiguous for both fans and the party, via Variety. The Duffer’s further commented on fan speculation about Eleven’s apparent death, stating that Mike is not communicating with her in any way, even if she is alive.

The realization that Hopper and Joyce had gone to high school came after the final confrontation.

Within Venca’s memory prison, Henry Creel is shown to have attended high school with Hopper and Joyce. This past relationship is not mentioned by either in the show. According to Variety, Ross stated that this was to avoid confusion for fans who have not seen the play.

The rock in the briefcase will be further expanded on in the spinoff.

In the finale, what is inside the briefcase is discovered. According to Variety, when asked to describe the material that first established Henry’s connection with the mindflayer. Matt briefly bounced around the answer before calling it “Spinoffy”. The lore behind this mysterious substance will be explored in the upcoming spinoff, though it follows a different mythology than the Mind Flayer. Matt said they will start work on that project on Monday.

The spinoff will feature no characters from the original series.

For the fans online who believe Hopper and Joyce will continue to battle the supernatural in Montauk, that will not be the case. Variety has reported that the spinoff will be an entirely new cast of characters.

The Duffers denied any tampering with episodes in volume two or cuts made throughout the season. 

Variety has reported that both a conspiracy theory and a petition made rounds on the internet that certain scenes were cut from the final season. Ross responded,“Obviously, that’s not a real thing,” and “I don’t think there’s a single cut scene in the entire season.”