'Stranger Things' Season 2's Bromance Between Steve, Dustin 'Was Never Planned'
The bromance of Steve Harrington and Dustin Henderson, who are played by Gaten Matarazzo and Joe Keery, respectively, in Stranger Things season 2 was one of the nicer things (heh) to see in the show.
As a stunning revelation, it wasn't even planned at all.
One Happy Accident
In the Duffer Brothers' recap for episode six "The Spy" for Vulture, Matt Duffer explained that the friendship between Steve and Dustin wasn't even part of their original pitch for the second season to Netflix, saying it's "just something you discover along the way."
Just to be clear, the two characters bonded over matters of love — and the Farrah Fawcett hair spray.
"Fabergé. It's Fabergé Organics. Use the shampoo and the conditioner, and when your hair's damp — it's not wet, okay? — when it's damp, do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray," Steve tells Dustin.
In the season finale, Steve even drove Dustin to the Snow Ball dance, and the two had a seemingly genuine older-brother-younger-brother relationship.
But It Was Natural
Even though it was an unplanned thing, it just seemed right. Steve was starting to get sidelined when Nancy picked Jonathan over him, and to make sure he doesn't disappear from the show, the Duffer Brothers had a great idea: pair him up with Dustin.
That's not everything to it too. At the time, Dustin was "really abandoned by his friends," which is presumably the same case that Steve is in with his friends. On top of that, Dustin also didn't exactly have much luck with his crush Max Mayfield, who is played by Sadie Sink.
To put two and two together, they're both pretty much left with broken hearts, and they're both sort of alienated from their respective groups of friends. It just makes sense to bring them together.
"The minute we started writing them together — at this point, we knew the voices of the actors so well, and they just seemed to work really well together. It was like two very different notes that played really nicely together," Matt said.
While the cool guy and the nerdy kid getting along isn't a common scenario, Steve and Dustin just proved it works. Not only did their bromance appeal to the many Stranger Things fans here and there, but it also left a strong impression on the Duffers.
"That's my favorite thing this year. Or my favorite surprise, because it was never planned," Matt said.
