These Major 'Stranger Things' Characters Were Almost Killed Off in Season 1

The second season of Stranger Things was supposed to play out much, much differently.

In the newly released book Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down, the show's creators reveal that two main characters were never intended to live past the inaugural season. But thanks to the series' success those plans were scrapped.

"Eleven was going to sacrifice herself to save the day," Ross Duffer says in the book. "That was always the end game. But once we realized that the show was potentially going to go on longer than one season, we needed to leave it more up in the air, because deep down we knew the show just wouldn’t really work without Eleven. And at that point, we knew how special Millie was. If there was going to be more Stranger Things, Eleven had to come back."

Can you imagine an Eleven-less Stranger Things? Yeah, neither can we; especially since season two was so heavily propelled by Eleven's (Millie Bobby Brown) origin story.

The character of Steve Harrington—played by Joe Keery—almost got the ax, as well.

"This Steve character, he was just supposed to be this giant douchebag," Duffer revealed, adding that Keery's charm was a big factor in their decision to keep Steve alive. "We fell in love with Joe."

Worlds Turned Upside Down hit shelves this week, as fans await the 2019 premiere of Stranger Things 3. Though there are still a lot of questions about what the upcoming season will entail, Duffer claims the show will put a lot more emphasis on the gross factor.

"While it's our most fun season, it also turns out to be our grossest season," he recently revealed. "We're inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing. We're inspired by Cronenberg. We have a little bit of a George Romero vibe in there, as well. There are horror movies and horror masters that we haven't really paid tribute to as much in previous seasons that we are definitely going to get into this season."