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Stranger Things Fan Fave Gay Character Was Supposed to Be Straight

The horror.

Rachel Kiley

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.

Read Full Bio

Rachel Kiley

rachelkiley

August 06 2019 10:00 AM EST

December 09 2022 9:12 AM EST

Stranger Things made a splash when they finally threw queer rep into the equation in the latest installment of small town adventures. But it almost didn’t happen.

Maya Hawke, who joined the third season as Robin Buckley, told the Wall Street Journal that her character was originally supposed to share a romantic storyline with resident bully-turned-softie Steve Harrington.

“Throughout filming, we started to feel like she and Steve shouldn’t get together, and that she’s gay,” Hawke said. “Even when I go back and watch earlier episodes, it just seems like the most obvious decision ever.”

Steve admits his feelings for Robin towards the end of the season, and she finally has to confess that it wasn’t actually him she had a crush on in school — it was the girl who “wouldn’t stop staring” at him that she was actually interested in.

— (@)

The scene plays out beautifully as is, though it’s easy to imagine it going in Steve’s favor instead — easy being the key word here. Instead, the creative team decided to take the route that was both more interesting and more well-suited to the version of Maya that had developed over the course of the season.

“The Duffer brothers and I, and Shawn Levy (the director), had a lot of conversations throughout shooting and it wasn’t really until we were shooting episode four and five, I think, that we made the final decision,” Hawke explained.