Eddie Munson (Stranger Things): the Hellfire Club metalhead, one season to become legend
Character · Hellfire Club president · Season 4
Eddie Munson appears in only one season of Stranger Things, and he became one of the most loved characters in the whole show. President of the Hellfire Club, guitarist of Corroded Coffin, dealer on the side, professional senior, he becomes in March 1986 suspect number one in Vecna's murders before dying a hero, guitar in hand, in the Upside Down. This page brings together everything: who he is, what he did, how he dies, and why Hawkins never forgot him.
The essentials
- Name: Edward “Eddie” Munson, raised by his uncle Wayne
- Appearance: season 4 only (March 1986)
- Role: president of the Hellfire Club, Hawkins High's Dungeons & Dragons circle
- Band: Corroded Coffin, where he plays guitar
- Distinctive signs: patched denim vest, long hair, rings, the Forest Hills trailer
- Played by: Joseph Quinn
- Status: dead in 1986 in the Upside Down, honored by Dustin in season 5
Contents
Played by
Joseph Quinn
It is Joseph Quinn who lends his face to Eddie Munson on the show.
Image: Stranger Things series, via assets.teenvogue.com.
Who is Eddie Munson?
Eddie Munson makes his entrance standing on a table in the Hawkins High cafeteria, in March 1986, haranguing the jocks and the cheerleaders in the name of every outcast in the school. He is repeating his senior year for the third time, he sells weed in the woods, he wears long hair and a denim jacket covered in metal-band patches. To the town, he is a delinquent. To Mike and Dustin, he is a master.
Because Eddie presides over the Hellfire Club, the Dungeons & Dragons circle at Hawkins High, where he is dungeon master and where the party's newcomers have found a family. His parents abandoned him; he lives with his uncle Wayne, a night-shift worker, in a trailer at the Forest Hills park. He plays guitar in a band, Corroded Coffin, with the dream of getting out of Hawkins someday.
Under the big mouth, Eddie is a softie and a coward. He says so himself: he runs, always. That is what he does the night Chrissy Cunningham dies in front of him in his trailer, and that is what he will finally stop doing, one time only, and it will cost him his life.
The Hellfire Club and the Satanic PanicIn the 1980s, in the United States, a wave of fear accused Dungeons & Dragons of leading teenagers into Satanism. The show uses it: after Chrissy's death, Jason Carver, captain of the basketball team, convinces the town that Eddie runs a cult. The manhunt that follows is the true monster of season 4, even before Vecna.
In the shop: a piece inspired by Eddie Munson, chosen by us.
In the shopMen's Eddie Munson Rooftop Concert 1986 T-shirt39,90 €See the product
Eddie in 1986, week after week
March 1986Chrissy
Chrissy Cunningham, star cheerleader at Hawkins High, comes to buy something to calm her nightmares. Eddie receives her in his trailer, and she freezes, eyes white, before rising into the air and breaking in front of him. He runs. The next day he is the police's suspect number one, and the target of Jason Carver and the basketball team, convinced he sacrificed Chrissy to a cult.
March 1986The hideout
Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Max find him in Reefer Rick's boathouse, his supplier, on the edge of Lover's Lake. They believe him, explain the existence of the Upside Down and of Vecna, the name Eddie and Dustin choose after the undead wizard from the game. Eddie stays hidden while the party investigates, and watches, helpless, Patrick McKinney, another basketball player, die in front of him on the lake. His guilt in the town's eyes is sealed.
March 1986Lover's Lake
When Steve, who has gone to check a gate under the lake, is sucked into the Upside Down, Eddie dives after him with Nancy and Robin. On the other side, he discovers the flipped version of Hawkins, the demobats, and his own trailer, frozen in 1983. That is where the final plan plays out: while Nancy, Steve, and Robin attack Vecna in the Creel house, Eddie and Dustin have to draw the swarm away from the house.
March 1986The last concert
On the roof of the Upside Down version of his trailer, Eddie plugs in his amp and plays “Master of Puppets” by Metallica at full volume. The swarm rushes in. The plan works: the demobats leave the Creel house. Eddie and Dustin take refuge in the trailer, but Eddie understands the bats will eventually get in. He goes back out, alone, on a bike, to draw them even farther. He could have climbed back up the rope. This time, he does not run. The demobats catch him, and he dies in Dustin's arms, asking him to look after the Hellfire sheep.
1987Season 5: the inheritance
Eddie is not brought back. But he is everywhere: Dustin wears his jacket, his anger, and his guilt through the whole Hawkins quarantine. Dustin goes to see Wayne, Eddie's uncle, to tell him his nephew died a hero, while the town still believes him guilty. In the epilogue, the valedictorian speech Dustin gives in front of the whole high school is dedicated to Eddie Munson.
What defines him
At the Hellfire table, Eddie runs the campaign, invents, theatricalizes. It is that storytelling talent that makes him, without his knowing it, the first to understand who Vecna is.
Corroded Coffin, the patches, the guitar: the music is not set dressing. It becomes the weapon of the final scene, as Max's song had been at the cemetery.
He runs from Chrissy, from Patrick, from Jason. He says so without shame. That is what makes his last choice, the choice to stay, so heavy.
At the tables he defends the kids Hawkins High crushes. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas find with him what Hawkins refuses them: a place to be weird together.
Key moments
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The cafeteria
Standing on the table, Eddie puts the “conformists” on trial in front of the whole high school. An entrance that says everything about the character in thirty seconds.
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The trailer, first night
Chrissy rises into the air, her bones break, and Eddie can do nothing. The scene that makes him the ideal suspect.
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The boathouse
Surrounded by his friends, Eddie tells what he saw, in tears. Dustin believes him before the sentence is even over.
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The roof
An amp, a guitar, a Metallica track in a red sky streaked with lightning. The most famous scene of season 4.
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The bike
He cuts the rope, mounts the bike, and rides out to draw the swarm. This time he does not run. The sacrifice that made a generation cry.
Another piece from the selection: a piece inspired by Eddie Munson.
In the shopLego Eddie Munson mini figure14,90 €See the product
Not to be confused
| People often say | In reality | The landmark |
|---|---|---|
| Eddie comes back in season 5 | No: he stays dead, honored by Dustin | The valedictorian speech |
| Eddie killed Chrissy | It is Vecna; Eddie was only a witness | The town will never really learn it |
| Eddie was a Satanist | He ran a role-playing club | The satanic panic of the 1980s, exploited by Jason |
| Eddie plays Metallica in the cafeteria | No: on the roof of his trailer, on the Upside Down side | The final scene, last episode of season 4 |
A rarer confusion: Eddie is not a former student who has become an adult. He is still in high school, at twenty, for the third senior year in a row. That is the detail that makes his role as the party's big brother believable, and his promise, never kept, of finally getting his diploma in June 1986.
Our Eddie Munson products
Eddie became, in a single season, one of the most requested characters: Hellfire Club T-shirts, patched jackets, trailer posters, and guitar accessories inspired by his world. We pick every piece ourselves, and claim nothing beyond our passion for the show.
To complete the reading: a piece inspired by Eddie Munson.
In the shopEddie Munson metal sweater77,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
Who is Eddie in Stranger Things?
Eddie Munson is president of the Hellfire Club, the Dungeons & Dragons circle at Hawkins High, in 1986. A guitarist, a senior repeating the year, an occasional dealer, raised by his uncle Wayne in a trailer, he becomes suspect number one in Vecna's murders after witnessing Chrissy Cunningham's death.
How does Eddie die in Stranger Things?
In the Upside Down, after drawing the demobats by playing guitar on the roof of his trailer, Eddie goes back out alone to draw them still farther. The swarm catches him, bites him, and tears him. He dies in Dustin's arms, asking him to look after the Hellfire members.
What song does Eddie play on the roof?
“Master of Puppets”, by Metallica, released in March 1986, the very month of season 4. He plays it at full volume, plugged into an amp, to draw the swarm of demobats away from the Creel house during the assault on Vecna. The scene put the track back on the charts in 2022.
Does Eddie come back in season 5?
No. Eddie stays dead, and the show does not bring him back. He is present through Dustin, who wears his jacket and his guilt all season, who goes to see his uncle Wayne to tell him the truth, and who dedicates his valedictorian speech to Eddie in the epilogue.
Why does the town accuse Eddie?
Because he is the last one to have seen Chrissy alive, in his trailer, and because he runs a Dungeons & Dragons club at a time when the game is accused of satanism. Jason Carver, Chrissy's boyfriend, turns the high school into a militia. Eddie will never be publicly cleared.
Who plays Eddie Munson?
Joseph Quinn plays Eddie in season 4. The character, planned for a single season, became one of the most popular on the show. The images on this page come from the show and its promotion; they remain the property of their rights holders.