‘Stranger Things’ Fan-Favorite Eddie Munson Is Getting An Origin Story

Eddie Munson is back—sort of. The fan-favorite Stranger Things 4 character, played with oodles of charm by Joseph Quinn, sadly met his end on the popular Netflix series. Like many fans, I wasn’t happy with this overly predictable outcome.

While fans started a petition to bring Eddie back from the dead, I penned a scathing review of the Stranger Things finale. In it, I wrote:

Give me a break, Duffer Brothers, with this unoriginal nonsense. Eddie was a great new character and Joseph Quinn really knocked it out of the park, but what an absolute waste his death was in the end.

First off, this is an old trick. This is Bob in Season 2 and Alexei in Season 3. All over again. How shocking, guys. Really didn’t see this coming at all!

[…]

This was just a pointless waste of a great character that exposes the Duffer Brothers’ reliance on reusing the same formula over and over again. I’m not happy about it at all. And I mean, why not just kill Argyle while you’re at it?

Okay, I was a little worked up, but I was just so enormously disappointed with how the finale played out after what was mostly a very strong season that fell apart in the end. In fact, it fell apart so badly that I had to write a second article pointing out all the ways it didn’t work. Oy vey!

Now, as I noted up above, Eddie Munson is getting one more chance to shine, but not in the way we all hoped. As far as we know, he’s dead for good and won’t come back, though Billy (Dacre Montgomery) came back after his death—or at least evil visions of him did—so it’s possible Munson will be revived in a similar way.

Instead, Munson is getting an origin story novel, Flight Of Icarus, written by author Caitlin Schneiderhan, who also happens to be a writer on the show’s fifth season. Entertainment Weekly reported on the new prequel novel and has the cover art if you want to check it out. The book takes place two years before the events in the show, in 1984, and deals with some of Eddie’s pre-Stranger Things shenanigans, including his efforts to make a name with his band Corroded Coffin. Here’s the synposis:

Hawkins, Indiana — for most, it’s simply another idyllic, manicured all-American town. But for Eddie Munson it’s like living in a perpetual Tomb of Horrors. Luckily, he only has a few more months to survive at Hawkins High. And what is senior year, really, but just killing time between Dungeons & Dragons sessions with the Hellfire Club and gigs with his band?

It’s at the worst dive bar in town that Eddie meets Paige, someone who has pulled off a freaking miracle. She escaped Hawkins and built a wickedly cool life for herself working for a record producer out in Los Angeles. Not only is she the definition of a badass — with a killer taste in music — she might be the only person that actually appreciates him as the bard he is instead of the devil incarnate. But the best thing? She’s offering a chance for him to make something of himself, and all he needs is to get her a demo tape of Corroded Coffin’s best songs.

Just one problem: Recording costs money. Money Eddie doesn’t have. But he’s willing to do whatever it takes: even if that means relying on his old man, Al Munson. His dad just stumbled back into his life, with another dubious scheme up his sleeve, and yet Eddie knows this is his only option to make enough dough in enough time. It’s a risk, but if it pays off he will finally have a one-way ticket out of Hawkins.

Eddie can feel it: 1984 is going to be his year.

Well, who knows? This could be a fun new adventure to go on for fans of Eddie Munson and Stranger Things. But without Joseph Quinn, it’s hard for me to imagine we’ll really get the full Eddie experience.

The problem with killing off Quinn’s character is that he was just a lot more likable and interesting than so many of the remaining established characters, and because he was new his death felt obligatory rather than earned. Half a dozen established characters would have made better deaths with more meaningful sacrifices, but the Duffer Brothers and Netflix played it safe. Too safe. As fun as a book like this might be, not having Eddie around for Stranger Things 5 is a real missed opportunity (instead of killing off . . . let’s say Mike or Jonathan—or even Steve, whose sacrifice would have been the most powerful, in my opinion even if I like him a lot more than the other two).

Flight Of Icarus releases on Halloween, 2023 via Penguin Random House.