‘Stranger Things 2’ Initially Planned To Kill Major Character Earlier

Big spoiler warning for Stranger Things 2.

The sophomore season of Netflix‘s hit series saw the introduction of Bob “the brain” Newby (Sean Astin), loving new boyfriend to the perennially strung out Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder). With her son Will (Noah Schnapp) once again affected by the Upside Down and Demogorgons — this time taking the form of “Demodogs” — Bob is roped into the supernatural plot, and eventually proves himself to be a genuine superhero when he helps Joyce, Will and Hopper (David Harbour) escape from the locked down Hawkins lab by overriding the computer system.

Unfortunately, just feet away from escape, Bob is tackled by Demodogs and devoured. Speaking to EW, Ross Duffer — one half of the Duffer Brothers, the twin creative team behind Stranger Things — says Bob was supposed to meet his end earlier than episode 8, but Sean Astin‘s performance lead to the filmmakers keeping Bob around twice as long.

“Bob was always intended to die, but we fell in love with Sean and what he was doing with this character,” Duffer said. “He was supposed to die in like episode 4 and we just kept keeping him alive because he was so great and what he added to the show. Once we got to 8, we were like, we either got to do this or not do this. But I think it was important in terms of the stakes of the show. This is not a kids show and there are consequences and people do die. But we are sad to lose him because he really just blew us away.”

A Bob return is possible, says Matt Duffer, who would like to see the character make some kind of a comeback.

“I have some Bob ideas but I don’t know what to do with him,” he said. “I will say I would love to revisit the character of Bob in some way but I don’t know how to even do that.”

An actual resurrection would be unlikely — Bob was savagely mauled and the last shot of his corpse looked pretty definite — but maybe Bob can live in on spirit, not unlike the #JusticeForBarb campaign waged on social media on behalf of Nancy Wheeler’s (Natalia Dyer) fallen best friend, Barbara Holland (Shannon Purser).

“I had a sense, but they told me they hadn’t made a final decision on it, so we would see what happens,” Astin said when asked if he knew Bob’s ultimate fate. “That may have been them keeping it close to the vest. I definitely had a sense that he was certainly in jeopardy.”

“I was certainly lobbying for good old Bob to hang around,” Astin continued. “I didn’t just show up to meet these kids and get out of there! I wanted to be part of it.”

As for the Radio Shack superstar’s gruesome end, Astin found Bob’s heroic self sacrifice a satisfying conclusion for the character.

“Winona was so upset,” Astin said. “She was so upset! She didn’t want my character to die. She was like, ‘Can he keep going on?’ And they were like, ‘No.’ When she showed up, she was just so not happy about the death scene and doing the death scene. So when the blood was spurting out, she was like, ‘It’s too much! It’s too much!’ I’m like, ‘It’s not enough! It’s not enough!’”

“To me, the thought completed itself. Bob wanted to provide for her and so he rescued her and saved her life. It’s a satisfying end for me.”

Stranger Things 2 is now streaming in its entirety exclusively on Netflix.