Those who have been writing fanfiction to flesh out Eddie Munson’s story from Netflix’s Stranger Things, rejoice! Our favorite metalhead is getting his very own Stranger Things novel. Eddie’s tragic death had us all mourning right alongside Dustin in the Stranger Things finale, and as it’s unlikely he’ll be coming back in season 5 (though it’s not entirely impossible—Hopper came back too, after all), we can at least take solace in the fact that we’ll get to learn more about Eddie’s life in Hawkins before Dustin, Mike, and Lucas joined the Hellfire Club.
Flight of Icarus, which is being penned by author Caitlin Schneiderhan—who is, incidentally, also part of the Stranger Things season 5 writers’ room—will be published by Penguin Random House on October 31, 2023. There had better be some trademark Stranger Things spookiness going on in this story with that release date.
What will Eddie’s Stranger Things novel be about?
The prequel novel, set in 1984, (two years before the events of Stranger Things season 4), will follow Eddie “as he meets a record producer named Paige, who gives the Hellfire Club leader the chance to achieve his musical dreams with his band Corroded Coffin. He just needs money, which gets him entangled in his dad’s latest shady scheme,” according to the official plot description.
Will 1984 be Eddie’s year? Given 1986 wasn’t, I doubt it, sadly. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see more of Eddie’s high school journey, find out more about his band, and discover more about his troubled relationship with his father, Al Munson. Will Paige be a love interest? Will any other Stranger Things characters appear in the novel? Who knows! But Flight of Icarus should be an exciting read and provide plenty of fuel for our favorite fanfiction writers to work with.
Schneiderhan says the reason she found writing about Eddie so irresistible is because he’s “unfailingly, unapologetically himself” and “he encourages the people around him to be the same.” That’s undoubtedly why swaths of Stranger Things fans fell for Joseph Quinn’s portrayal of the Eddie Munson in the first place, too.
Stranger Things is well known for creating compelling, relatable side characters. Some of those go on to become part of the main gang—Robin and Max, anyone?—while others are destined to be relegated to the sidelines, killed off too soon in a show that already, arguably, has slightly too big of a cast. Remember how harsh Barb’s death felt? Or Alexei’s, or Chrissy Cunningham‘s? And Eddie’s death might have been the worst one of all, a character we got to know over the course of an entire season. Schneiderhan’s book, at least, will give Stranger Things fans a chance to reconnect with Eddie Munson’s character all over again.
(via Entertainment Weekly, featured image: Netflix)
