Warning: The following post contains spoilers fromStranger Things 2.
But I think it was important in terms of the stakes of the show.
This is not a kids show and there are consequences and people do die.
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But we are sad to lose him because he really just blew us away."
And there might be hope for Bob… somehow.
EW talked with Astin about the terrifying death scene and the heroic quest of Bob.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you know Bob was going to die from the start?
That may have been them keeping it close to the vest.
I definitely had a sense that he was certainly in jeopardy.
They said he was going to die earlier but they kept delaying it because they loved you so much.
Don’t get me wrong: I was certainly lobbying for good old Bob to hang around.
I didn’t just show up to meet these kids and get out of there!
I wanted to be part of it.
The whole sequence in the lab is veryJurassic Park.
Did the Duffer Brothers make it clear to you all they were paying homage to that?
Well, you couldn’t help but feel that.
And then, also, you’ve got Paul Reiser fromAliensin my ear telling me to do stuff.
I just changed my Twitter description of myself.
I put “I guess I’m meta.”
So I was just loving being the main guy for the day.
But it also felt really heroic.
That was basically all I said to them on the first episode when I was on set.
They were like, “Oh man it’s so great.
Winona and you get on together so well.”
You could see them thinking about it.
Just anything heroic."
No justice required for Bob.
It was such a physical scene.
You’re running everywhere.
How was that to film?
Well, I’m pretty thick, physically, in this show.
But I’m actually a marathon runner and I did the Iron Man Kona the year before last.
So, when it came time to do the running things, I was always pushing the envelope.
I physically ran up and down those hallways like 150 times.
I kinda actually pulled a hamstring at the end of it, just like a light pull.
They had one of the writers who’s like 4'10" or 4'11" and weighs 100 pounds.
She jumped on me and I had all the dots all over me for the computer-generated stuff.
The weight of her on top of me pushes blood into your face even more.
It took a long time with the blood squirting out and everything.
Your death scene was really gruesome.
My thing was, I wanted more!
We did a slow-mo take.
I got kind of a standing ovation on set.
They were like, “It’s too much!”
I was like, “It’s not too much!
It needs to be more more more!”
I saw a version of it a month ago and I think they made some little adjustments after.
Winona was so upset.
She was so upset!
She didn’t want my character to die.
She was like, “Can he keep going on?”
And they were like, “No.”
So when the blood was spurting out, she was like, “It’s too much!
It’s too much!”
I’m like, “It’s not enough!
It’s not enough!”
To me, the thought completed itself.
Bob wanted to provide for her and so he rescued her and saved her life.
It’s a satisfying end for me.
