One of the highlights of Netflix’s Stranger Things 3, if not the highlight, was the relationship between Robin and Steve. For most of the season, it seems like the Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlor employees, who get embroiled in a vast Russian conspiracy that threatens to destroy the world (what a show), are being set up as the show’s next power-couple, replacing every couple but Nancy and Jonathan, because no one likes them. But in episode seven, Robin (played by Maya Hawke, who also appears in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) reveals that she’s gay. Season one Steve would have taken this news poorly, but season three Steve is admirably supportive, and they become platonic friends.
That’s not how their relationship originally went, though.
In the early stages of season three, the show’s writers had Steve and Robin hooking up, but “throughout filming, we started to feel like she and [Steve] shouldn’t get together, and that she’s gay,” Hawke told the Wall Street Journal. “Even when I go back and watch earlier episodes, it just seems like the most obvious decision ever.” In a separate interview with Variety, she added, “The Duffer brothers and I, and [executive producer] Shawn Levy had a lot of conversations throughout shooting and it wasn’t really until we were shooting episode four and five, I think, that we made the final decision. It was kind of a collaborative conversation, and I’m really happy with the way that it went.”
It’s time to update the board…
…because Robin and Steve being friends rules.
(Via Wall Street Journal)
