Could this Stranger Things season five ‘set leak’ mean an old character will return?!

A Stranger Things season five “set leak” may have revealed a returning character, who we haven’t seen in nine whole years.

Season five has been a huge hit for Netflix, smashing records in its first week after volume one dropped. The first four episodes racked up 59.6 million views in just five days, the biggest ever debut for an English-language Netflix TV show ever.

As always, the fandom is deep in theory-mode: Why does Vecna look so different now? What’s the deal with that cursed cave in episode four? And who is making a dramatic comeback from the past?

Well… it looks like we finally have an answer, and it’s one people have been manifesting for almost a decade.

During a set visit for season five, TIME Magazine revealed they’d spotted a very familiar Upside Down casualty: Barb, Nancy’s ex-bestie. 

TIME described stumbling upon a prosthetic of her body while wandering through a tunnel on set in Atlanta: “I’m exploring a tunnel on the set in Atlanta when I nearly trip over Barb’s body. Covered in inky black vines made partly of spray-painted pool noodles, the dummy’s lips purple and slightly agape with a giant bleeding gash on her neck, the fan-favorite character is half buried in the ground.”

Chilling!

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Barb was one of the very first deaths in Stranger Things, ripped into the Upside Down after Nancy ditched her to go hang out with Steve. (Honestly, still not over it.) Apart from Nancy’s guilt arc, the rest of Hawkins barely seemed to notice she was gone, which is exactly why people demanded justice with the #JusticeForBarb movement.

Credit: Netflix

The Duffers admit Netflix never forgot her. Showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer have since confessed to Tudum that Netflix were obsessed with Barb: “The one note we consistently got back [from Netflix] is like, ‘What about Barb? Is anyone thinking about Barb?’

“Netflix kept harassing us about it and it turns out they were right… we neglected her, and as such, Hawkins neglected her, and it made her that much more famous.”

Basically, we might finally be getting the closure we’ve been screaming about since 2016. Even Barb herself (aka Shannon Purser) addressed her bizarre return to Vulture at the season five premiere, though she’s clearly playing coy: “All I know is that my body shows up and I have no idea what the context is… I’ll be just as surprised as you are.”

We last saw her corpse when Hopper and Joyce crossed into the Upside Down in season one. But now, season five has already zoomed in on her grave in volume one, another sign her story is being brought full circle.

Justice. Will. Be. Served.

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Featured image credit: Netflix