The Duffer Brothers have addressed Millie Bobby Brown’s comments asking for more character deaths in “Stranger Things.” The showrunners appeared on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, and discussed the series.

Upon the release of “Stranger Things 4,” Millie Bobby Brown joked about the size of the show’s cast, targeting the showrunners and saying they were too fond of the characters and were unable to kill them off. “You need to start killing people off,” she said in an interview with The Wrap. “The Duffer Brothers are sensitive sallies who don’t want to kill anybody off. We need to have the mindset of ‘Game of Thrones.’ Kill me off! They tried killing David off and they brought him back!”

When discussing her comments in the podcasts, The Duffer Brothers laughed and said that cast members didn’t know the details of the ending of the show. “Believe us, we’ve explored all of it, all options in the writing room,” said Matt Duffer. “Just as a complete hypothetical, you kill Mike, it’s like… that’s depressing, we’re not depressing — we aren’t Game of Thrones. This is Hawkins, it’s not Westeros. The show becomes not Stranger Things anymore because you do have to treat it realistically.”

He also said that killing off characters in their show was complicated, and something that affected their storylines significantly. “When Barb dies, it’s two seasons worth of grappling with that. So imagine Mike dying, it’s like is that something we’re interested in exploring or not interested in exploring? Eddie’s death is going to have huge repercussions on season five,” he said, referencing the most important death of the season. “Every death has impact. As we’re moving into the final season, I think more of that’s on the table because … we’ll see.”

Season 5 of “Stranger Things” is expected to premiere at some point in 2024. Writers are completing the show this year, likely needing some extra time to prepare and shoot the closing chapter of the show.