Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the Stranger Things season 5 finale.Natalia Dyer had one condition she felt strongly about for Nancy Wheeler’s Stranger Things ending. After a heartfelt breakup scene with Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) and playing an integral role in defeating Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and the Mind Flayer, Nancy reveals in the Stranger Things series finale that she dropped out of Emerson College and took a job at the Boston Herald.
In an interview with Deadline, Dyer shared that she was “very adamant” about Nancy no longer being at school as she no longer saw that as something that the character wanted. She also explained that this is the condition she shared with showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer, who spoke with the actors about how they wanted their respective characters’ journeys to end. Check out Dyer’s comments below:
The end, I would say Nancy not being in school is something I was very adamant about. The Duffers, they’d go around a little bit and be like, “Well, what do you think?” They’re very collaborative. They would ask, like, “Where do you see your character? What do you think?” Just kind of checking in with the actors, which I thought was really nice. My main thing is like, I just do not think Nancy could go back to school. I just cannot see her in school. And that was something that I said, “Pretty please. I just cannot.” I remember reading the epilogue like, “Yeah, that’s perfect.” For me. For Nancy. I felt really satisfied. I think after everything she’s been through, I just couldn’t [see her] writing papers and turning it in. You know? It’s hard, in a way, you feel so much love and care for these characters, and you want so many things for them, but you also wanted to stay kind of grounded. I think for everybody, it felt really good.
Jonathan, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) are all surprised that Nancy is no longer a college student, but fully support her decision and are proud of her, recognizing that she has often taken a surprising path to do what she feels is best.
Nancy’s decision about her future and volunteering herself as bait shooting at the Mind Flayer in the series finale cements how much she has changed since Stranger Things‘ first season. At the beginning of season 1, Nancy is primarily concerned with doing well in school and winning Steve’s heart.
This version of the character likely would have stayed enrolled at Emerson. By the end of the series, the take-charge investigative journalist and happily single woman is no longer best-suited to the college experience. Skipping college and diving head-on into journalism with a well-known newspaper is now a more appropriate path for her.
A novel titled Stranger Things: One Way or Another: A Nancy Wheeler Mystery was also published on December 2, following Nancy and Robin as they investigate a mystery that occurs between seasons 4 and 5. Her investigation in the novel adds further credence to her decision to waste no time getting into the “real world” and working at the Boston Herald.