‘Stranger Things’ Documentary Director Reveals Whether the Duffer Brothers Used ChatGPT to Write Series Finale

• The series finale of Stranger Things hit Netflix on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025.
• A behind-the-scenes documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things, also dropped on Jan. 12.
• The documentary’s director, Martina Radwan, weighed in on a popular theory that the Duffer Brothers used ChatGPT to write the series’ highly-anticipated finale.

The internet can’t seem to let go of Stranger Things, and rightfully so. The nostalgia-pilled sci-fi phenomenon has been running on Netflix since 2016, and viewers fell in love with the crew of small-town teens battling monsters when a Dungeons & Dragons game seemingly crept into their real lives. After the finale aired on December 31, the streamer even bid a final farewell to the fan-favorite show with a behind-the-scenes documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things, on Jan. 12.

Throughout the doc, eagle-eyed fans kept tabs on any easter eggs or signals that more could be coming from the Hawkins heroes—but they might have caught another wildly unexpected detail. According to some screenshots shared on social media, fans theorized that one of the Duffer Brothers allegedly had a ChatGPT tab open on their computer as they were writing some of the show’s final scenes.

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Naturally, this sent the internet into a spiral, especially the longtime fans who were convinced the Conformity Gate theory held any truth. Luckily, the documentary’s director, Martina Radwan, sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to provide fans with more clarity on the series. And that ChatGPT theory? She was quick to defend the showrunners and their artistic integrity.

“I mean, are we even sure they had ChatGPT open?” she told the outlet, later adding, “Well, there’s a lot of chatter where [social media users] are like, ‘We don’t really know, but we’re assuming.’ But to me, it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research? How can you possibly write a storyline with 19 characters and use ChatGPT, I don’t even understand.”

The reporter then clarified that fans might have been more concerned with the general use of AI in Hollywood, to which Martina responded, “Again, first of all, nobody has actually proved that it was open. That’s like having your iPhone next to your computer while you’re writing a story. We just use these tools…while multitasking. So there’s a lot going on all the time, every time. What I find heartbreaking is everybody loves the show, and suddenly we need to pick it apart.”

Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things.

While the director debunked that there was any unethical use of generative-AI in the Stranger Things writers’ room, Netflix and the Duffer Brothers did not respond to THR’s request for comment on the matter.