Stranger Things finale secretly took inspiration from Baldur’s Gate 3

The Stranger Things finale quietly borrows its biggest idea from Baldur’s Gate 3, and it changes how that last battle lands.

Spoiler warning: The rest of this article contains major spoilers for the Stranger Things series finale and the Baldur’s Gate 3 ending.

The Stranger Things series finale pulls the entire core cast into one last plan to stop Vecna before the Upside Down fully consumes Hawkins and the real world. “Operation Beanstalk” splits the team across planes, with Eleven and Kali entering Henry’s mind while the others confront the Mind Flayer in physical form.

Regardless of whether it’s the ending you pictured for the big bad, it has a familiar shape, one that mirrors how a certain 2023 turn-based RPG lets its final moments unfold, at least according to the Duffers.

A final roll of the dice in Hawkins

In an interview with Variety, Matt Duffer revealed a surprising influence behind the finale. “We were thinking about D&D, and I was playing Baldur’s Gate 3 at the time, and we felt it was very important that the only way for them to defeat it was for the entire party to work together,” Duffer said.

He explained that the ending depended on every character reaching emotional closure before the fight. “Everyone had fully realised — either through self-acceptance or they’ve resolved all their various issues — moving into that final battle, they’re absolutely primed,” he continued.

That party-first thinking shaped the structure of the finale itself. “They’re the ultimate team, and it’s the party working all together to defeat this thing,” Duffer added. “They each have their own individual skills, right? And that’s where I go back to Dungeons & Dragons, and something like Baldur’s Gate. Because that’s how you take down these monsters that seem otherwise unstoppable.”

Like Baldur’s Gate 3, Stranger Things ends by rewarding unity over brute force, with character growth mattering as much as the final blow. Both finales frame victory as collective effort instead of a single hero moment.