When Stranger Things first released in 2016, it quickly became one of the hottest shows around and rightfully so. It combined horror, sci-fi and coming of age genres while featuring a missing person, young relationships, government conspiracy and, most importantly, a terrifying monster -- the Demogorgon.
Named after a Dungeons and Dragons monster, the Demogorgon hailed from an alternate dimension as it infiltrated the world to hunt. It first entered when Eleven, terrified after making contact with it, ripped a hole between dimensions. Its flowering mouth, endless maw and sinewy frame terrified fans as it hunted down characters throughout Season 1. However, that is not exactly how the Demogorgon was always intended to look.
When the Demogorgon came through the dimensional tear, no one could stop it. Bullets had no effect, and the Hawkins Laboratory scientists were killed by the monster they had unleashed. Then it made its way into the public, hunting anything that bled. After kidnapping Will Byers, the Demogorgon also took Barbara. It continued to terrorize the small town of Hawkins, Indiana until Eleven stopped it. In Season 1's final episode, as the Demogorgon threatened to kill her friends, Eleven seemingly sacrificed herself to save them.
As with any show of this nature, some things change along the way, and the Demogorgon's design is no exception. In Stranger Things’ original pilot, back when it was still called Montauk, its monster was slightly different. Although it was not known by its famous name yet, much of the creature was still the same as the final product. The one major change, though, was the inclusion of eyes. The pilot’s script describes the monster by saying, “For the first time, we glimpse its small black eyes, buried in pockets of pale, withered flesh.”
The Demogorgon's final look is frightful. Its rows and rows of teeth inside of its flowering mouth, along with its strong and agile frame, make it look like something unearthly. After seeing the Demogorgon, both Nancy and Joyce describe it as “a man with no face.” Its grotesque, humanoid form horrified them, but even still, it doesn’t really look human at all. However, the inclusion of small black eyes would have dramatically changed things.
Typically, the inclusion of eyes tends to humanize non-human beings. So, rather than being an unearthly monster from another dimension, it would have seemed more like a mutated human. Rather than automatically vilify the monster as evil, the characters would have had to try and understand why it was so human-like and what had happened to it. Ultimately, the exclusion of eyes was probably for the best. However, including them would have made the Demogorgon much creepier.
Created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder, Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Priah Ferguson, Cary Elwes, Jake Busey, Maya Thurman-Hawke and Levon Thurman-Hawke. Season 4 has yet to receive a release date.