The creators of Stranger Things have revealed how the iconic David Bowie track ‘Heroes’ was chosen as the final song of the series.
The fifth and final season of the hit Netflix show was broadcast yesterday on New Years Day (Thursday January 1) and saw the heroic group of friends come together one last time, on the anniversary of Will Byers’ disappearance, to battle Venca.
Season five was split into three volumes, with the first four episodes airing on November 27, and the remaining four episodes being broadcast across Boxing Day and New Years Day.
Alongside the star-studded cast, including Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, and Millie Bobby Brown, the series also came with an impressive soundtrack featuring ’80s hits from the likes of Kate Bush, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, ABBA and more.
During the ending credits though, it was the classic Bowie single ‘Heroes’ that was played as the final song of the entire series.
Speaking to Netflix Tudum, show co-creator Ross Duffer revealed that the song was chosen after it was suggested by Joe Keery, who plays Steve Harrington on the show and also releases music under the alias Djo.
“Once Joe said that, we immediately knew that was the right song to end the show on because it is, in some ways, an anthem for Stranger Things,” he said. “To use the original Bowie version just felt right and fitting for the conclusion.”
The track instantly became one of the music icon’s signature songs after being released on the 1977 album of the same name. It is believed to have been inspired by an embrace under the Berlin Wall that Bowie witnessed, and recorded at the Hansa Studios in West Berlin, just 150metres away from the Berlin Wall.
Co-written with Brian Eno, Bowie sang the song in English, German, and French, and it has since been covered by artists including Lady Gaga, Oasis, Depeche Mode, Yungblud, David Byrne and many more.
In 1987, Bowie famously played the song live near the border as part of a series of shows at the Reichstag, and many residents of East Berlin gathered to listen and sparked chants for the fall of the Berlin wall. Bowie would later recall how many people showed up to listen to the performance, and said that it felt “like a double concert where the wall was the division”.
“We would hear them cheering and singing along from the other side. God, even now I get choked up. It was breaking my heart. I’d never done anything like that in my life, and I guess I never will again,” he explained to Bill DeMain in 2003 (via Performing Songwriter).
Good-bye, David Bowie. You are now among #Heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the #wall. https://t.co/soaOUWiyVl #RIPDavidBowie
— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) January 11, 2016
When Bowie died in 2016 following a battle with cancer, the German Foreign Office posted a live version of the song online and wrote: “Good-bye David Bowie. You are now among #Heroes. Thank you for helping bring down the #wall”.
In 2024, the inspiration behind the song was thrown into question when a documentary claimed that the lyrics were actually written by Bowie after spending a day in Berlin with his then-girlfriend Clare Shenstone.
Titled Bowie In Berlin, the show saw the model and actor – who was in a relationship with Bowie during the mid-70s – claim that the lyrics were written about “an extraordinary day” the two had in the German capital. She also shared that she told the music icon about a dream she had where she was swimming with dolphins; something she says inspired the line: “I wish you could swim/Like dolphins can swim”.
Another documentary about Bowie is set to air later this week too, and will centre around the final years of his life. Titled The Final Act, the show is set to be broadcast on Channel 4 on Sunday (January 4).
As for Stranger Things, the final episode of the series debuted to 59.6million views, which was a new record for an English-language title on Netflix.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter recently, The Duffer Brothers addressed the ambiguity around the central character, Eleven, and the theory that she faked her own death to keep herself and her friends safe.
When asked if the character is alive at the end of the series, Ross Duffer responded: “I don’t know if we want to say. Obviously, we’ve had these conversations with Millie too, and we all have our own interpretations. I worry if I say it, it might take away. We really want the audience to take from it what they want.”
Not everyone was satisfied with the final season, however, with volume two’s conclusion having one of the worst fan ratings of the entire run.
In a four-star review of volume one, NME described the show as “the big, bold beginning of the end.”
“Perhaps inevitably, volume one feels a lot like an appetiser for the rest of the season” it read. “But even in piecemeal form, Stranger Things has a flair for epic and emotionally resonant storytelling. After all those years, this smart, big-hearted sci-fi show still has the power to turn your head upside down.”