Steve Harrington from Stranger Things might be everyone’s favorite character on the show, but he certainly didn’t start off that way! He originally was just Nancy Wheeler’s jock BF with a little bit of an ego problem in season 1, until Jonathan Byers stepped in during season 2 after they broke up. Scroll to see the complete timeline of Nancy, Steve and Jonathan’s love triangle here.
The Duffer Brothers, creators of the Netflix show, revealed that Steve wasn’t originally supposed to make it out of season 1 alive — they even planned for his death! That was until they met Joe Keery, the actor behind Steve, who they thought brought out an amazing side and thoughtfulness to Steve.
“I figured I was going to get killed, to be honest with you, because I played the douchey sort of boyfriend, which is the first guy to die,” Joe told GQ in August 2021. By season 2, he was written into the primary cast and quickly became a fan favorite.
Throughout the past 4 seasons, Steve goes through a lot of changes, and a lot of them stem from Nancy, his ex-girlfriend. “I see her as this person in pursuit of information and justice and I can’t see her putting that investigative nose down. so I hope she continues doing something along those lines,” Natalia Dyer, who plays Nancy, told Elle Magazine in May 2022.
“She started to get a lot more confident. I loved seeing the sensitive side of Nancy and the bada– side of Nancy. I hope she’s still going strong and her instincts and her passion remains intact.”
After season 4 volume 2 premiered in July 2022, many fans were curious to see if there would be a Steve and Nancy reunion, as Steve confesses he still has feelings for Nancy. In a June 2022 interview with Variety, Natalia said she had “crunchy feelings’ about the pair rekindling their relationship at first.
“It’s really tough. I don’t know. It feels like she’s been in a relationship for a while so maybe she needs some self-discovery time,” she told Variety. “It’s a bit complicated. Whatever happens, I would hope that she does it with integrity. I personally had some crunchy feelings about how the whole Jonathan thing started sort of behind Steve’s back. I can’t believe she did that. I mean, I can.”
She went on to explain that “Nancy and Steve have come so far” from who they were in the beginning of the show — both separately and together.
“What this season touches on is the fact that these two people do care about each other, and that hasn’t gone away. What that is and what label you want to put on that, I don’t know, but we see these characters meeting again after growing up and going through life with it,” Natalia said. “So, that was really lovely to play. It was really fun and touching. Truly, I have no idea where it’s gonna go, but I do like that they at least still care about each other.”
Scroll through our gallery to see the timeline of the love triangle between Steve, Nancy and Jonathan.
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