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Charlie Heaton appreciates the way Stranger Things ended.
Speaking to PEOPLE at the season 4 premiere of HBO’s Industry on Jan. 8, the actor admitted that he appreciated the final storyline for his and his girlfriend Natalia Dyer’s Stranger Things characters, Jonathan Byers and Nancy Wheeler. Stranger Things’ fifth and final season recently concluded in December 2025, and saw the longstanding love interests Nancy and Jonathan mutually decide to call it quits.
Heaton, 31, tells PEOPLE Nancy and Jonathan’s “emotional” breakup felt organic and authentic to who the characters have become. Though Heaton was rooting for the on-screen couple to end up together, he says he appreciates where Nancy and Jonathan wind up in the end.
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“They’ve been through so much together. And when you’re playing them, you care about them and you want them to have that ending, in some way,” Heaton says. “But [the ending] felt real and I think that felt more important than them being together.”
Heaton adds that the breakup “felt honest and true to the characters,” and really captured their growth. “It was just a really well-written scene, and for it to feel so honest was like, okay, that kind of touches a different place.”
Though their Stranger Things characters split, Heaton still has Dyer by his side in real life. Heaton and Dyer, 30, first sparked dating rumors in 2017, shortly after the show’s first season concluded.
As he enters a new phase in his career, Heaton tells PEOPLE it’s great to be able to navigate it with Dyer.
“It’s lovely. Yeah, you say goodbye to the characters, but the relationships, the relationship that I have, that [stays],” Heaton says.
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Of course, the end of the show itself was just as emotional, Heaton shares. The nostalgic sci-fi series debuted its first season in 2016, and he’s developed a deep gratitude and love for the cast in that time, Heaton says, which is “really rare.”
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Like Nancy and Jonathan’s breakup scene, Heaton’s final day on the Stranger Things set just felt honest, he says.
“It’ll forever live in my memory,” Heaton says, adding, “And that last day on set, the things we were shooting, it was just real honesty. It was just like, I love the people I’m working with and I’m sad to say goodbye to you. It was a really special experience.”
All episodes of Stranger Things are available to stream on Netflix.
