With Stranger Things renewed for a fifth and final season, Matthew Modine is campaigning for his character, Dr. Martin Brenner, to return to the Netflix series. On the BAFTAs red carpet, Modine suggested that his character may not be dead after the events of season 4.
“Is he dead?” Modine asked when questioned by Radio Times about Brenner’s fate. “I wish I knew. I love Millie Bobby Brown. I love the Duffer brothers and Shawn Levy. And it was such a wonderful show to go to work on. It was fun every day that I worked on the show. I hope that there’s some way to resuscitate Dr. Brenner and put him in season 5 because it would be wonderful to be part of the last season.”
In season 4, Brenner is revealed to be alive and working with Dr. Owens in Nevada on “NINA,” a project to restore the powers of his proudest creation, Eleven (Enola Holmes 2‘s Brown). Brenner was working om restoring Eleven’s powers so she could face Vecna (Camelot’s Jamie Campbell Bower) in the Upside Down.
When the U.S. army overpowers the facility, Brenner tries to escape with Eleven. However, Brenner’s efforts fail when he is shot by a sniper. Eleven refuses to forgive Brenner for his actions before he succumbs to his injuries.
Modine is quick to point out the possibility that Brenner is not dead, that perhaps he survived the gunshot wounds. Brenner also survived a Demogorgon attack in season 1, so he has a habit of escaping close calls with death.
“Well we didn’t really see him dead. He was just lying there in the dirt,” Modine said. “He’s survived the Demogorgon. He survived Vecna in episode 1 of season 4 when all the children were dead.” It seems that anything is possible in Stranger Things season 5, so why shouldn’t Modine return?
Just one thing is for certain: Season 5 will be the last season of Stranger Things as we know it. But fans may still be able to get their fix after it airs. There’s already a Stranger Things prequel on the way, in the form of a show on London’s West End, and that could pave the way to plenty more spin-off material.
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