Stranger Things viewers have called out a concerning detail in the series five finale
*Warning: This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 5.*
The Stranger Things finale has been hit with endless complaints since it premiered on New Year’s Day.
After almost a decade on our screens, the science fiction show came to an end and saw the death of beloved character Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown).
However, her story didn’t have a bleak ending, as the final scenes hinted that El is actually alive and well, after seemingly staging a secret escape right in front of her friends.
The rest of the Hawkins crew also survived the last big mission against Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), meaning fans didn’t lose their favourite characters.
However, viewers have been left unimpressed by the two-hour episode, with many calling out plot holes that the co-creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, failed to address.
Now, even the end credits scene has come under fire.
Stranger Things fans are concerned that the end credits scene was AI generated (Image: Netflix )
Viewers are shown the lives of our main characters in a lengthy epilogue, 18 months after Eleven’s disappearance. After this, David Bowie’s beloved seventies tune ‘Heroes’ starts playing, and the credits roll.
The closing credits feature black-and-white drawings of popular scenes from the show, including the moment Nancy (Natalia Dyer) practiced shooting a gun back in season one.
Fans are convinced that the artsy credits scene was created using AI-generated art, rather than by a real, paid artist. This theory has spread across social media, with many pointing out that small details ‘prove’ the drawings are computer-generated.
Taking to Reddit, one fan penned: “In my opinion, as an artist and as someone who has used AI image generation, this really stinks of AI.”
They continued: “If we focus on just the fingers in this photo alone, we can see stuff like the pinky on her right hand just morphing into an unreadable blob of details, something that happens a lot when an AI is confused about what to make of something. Usually, an artist would simply suggest details (usually by obscuring them in shadow) and not make mistakes like this.”
They claim Nancy’s hands appear mangled in the drawing (Image: Netflix )
A second viewer agreed, stating, “Right pinky is screwed up. Eyes are pointing in two different directions. The bottom of the nose has a fang-shaped extension. 100% AI.”
However, others have been quick to debunk this accusation.
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Taking to X, one viewer offered a side-by-side of the art in the credits scene and the original season one moment it reflects, proving that Nancy’s fingers appeared ‘mangled’ in the original shot.
It’s important to note that she was still inexperienced with firearms, so her hand positioning is supposed to be odd. The drawing style is similar to other illustrations by Kyle Lambert, who created the iconic Stranger Things posters. It is likely that he may have had a hand in the scene, but this has yet to be confirmed.
And most viewers won’t be satisfied until someone associated with the show makes an official statement.
Viewers are looking for a clear statement debunking the theory (Image: Netflix)
Podcast host Alex Azor recently called for the series producers to officially debunk this quickly spreading theory. Speaking on the Escape Pod Podcast, he said: “My main thing is that no artist has taken credit for the [end credit scene] yet. And I think that based on this controversy being so prominent already, somebody’s got to take credit for this.”
He went on to add that the Duffers must “come out and say ‘no, the guy that did the posters for season one through five also did these credits, we’re so happy for him to get that opportunity.'”
The internet personality went on to claim that if the credits were in fact produced by AI, it would be an “embarrassing note” for the show to end on.
Stranger Things is available to stream now on Netflix