'Stranger Things' Fans Have Taken Over Social Media With 'Conformity Gate' — What Does It Mean?

No fandom can accept a show's ending quite like the fans who followed Stranger Things for years. Game of Thrones fans? They might not all love the way it ended, but they've accepted it. Lost? Half of them are still convinced the characters were dead the whole time, but they've moved on. When it comes to Stranger Things, though, there are theories about the alleged real ending, including something called "Conformity Gate."

The phrase has made the rounds on X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Reddit in reference to what some fans believe is still coming from the Netflix series. The show ended with most of the storylines getting their own complete endings and without any cliffhangers. But that's not good enough for some fans, who believe there were clues all along that speak to a totally different ending to the series.

Conformity Gate refers to the overall theory that the way Stranger Things ended is not real and that it was, instead, a Vecna-created illusion that tricked Mike and the viewers. According to a Reddit thread, some fans believe that the characters conformed at the end of the series, and that they wouldn't have done that if they stayed true to who they are as characters.

The name of the theory also stems from some fans sharing the belief that Stranger Things creators, the Duffer brothers, played it too safe with the ending and conformed by not killing off any main characters and by giving everyone a happy and "safe" ending. Now, because of the theory that the show isn't quite over, people have used Conformity Gate to share their theories about how and why there is more Stranger Things on the way.

Some fans think that there are inconsistencies in Season 5 and in the finale episode itself. In one X post about Conformity Gate, someone wrote that Karen Wheeler is shown with her scars from a demogorgon in the graduation scene, but later, in her final scene, you can't see them. Someone else posted that they believe Mike specifically was tricked by Vecna and that everything shown in the epilogue after the big final fight was not real.

There has not been a confirmed ninth episode of Stranger Things, but there is a documentary being released about making the final season. And, according to a TikTok user, the doc could be a way to give the show a new ending, like Wes Craven's New Nightmare. In Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the cast of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies meet to make another film in the franchise, except the actors themselves are terrorized by the demon that inspired the character in the movies.

Per this arm of the Conformity Gate theory, the Stranger Things documentary could be the show's own version of Wes Craven's New Nightmare. That would mean the actors themselves become part of the story in the Netflix documentary. And, until there is more confirmation that the show really is over and done with, some fans will continue to cling to their theories about Vecna and his hold over the characters.