The True Story That Inspired Eddie Munson
Eddie Munson was born in Hawkins, Indiana, in 1965. His guardian is his paternal uncle, Wayne Munson, and they both lived in the town’s Forest Hills Trailer Park despite the fact that his parents and their status are still unknown. Eddie Munson and Chrissy Cunningham attended Hawkins Middle School together in the 1970s. Eddie and Chrissy took part in a talent event that was held at Hawkins Middle School. Chrissy’s cheering impressed Eddie, whilst Corroded Coffin, Eddie’s rock band, impressed Chrissy.
After enrolling at Hawkins High School, the two eventually lost touch, but Eddie Munson never harboured ill will against her. Eddie was the leader of the Hawkins High School Hellfire Club, a Dungeons & Dragons organisation that was hated by the school’s former students due to the growing notion that D&D was associated with Satan worship. As a result of these rumours and his taunting of the popular kids, Eddie Munson thrived and developed rivalry with Jason Carver, Chrissy’s boyfriend and a player on the basketball team at Hawkins High. Eddie Munson had originally planned to graduate in 1984 and again in 1985, but due to his rebellious nature and subpar academic performance, he was delayed, which made him hate the principal of the school.
Eddie Munson and his D&D group, then known as Hellfire Club, were at the cafeteria when Dustin Henderson and Mike Wheeler sat down there in 1986. The two lads accepted Eddie’s invitation to join his group after he noticed their outstanding potential. He is extremely aloof and has a deep dislike for Hawkins High’s jocks. He feels like he belongs in the “freaks” sector of cliques and claims that even “geeks” are worse than him. He also blames the world for his lack of respect for it, claiming that everyone is affected by conformity.
Why Stranger Things’ Eddie Munson was the unsung hero of 2022
On the popular sci-fi show, new characters have already been introduced with some hoopla, such as when Sadie Sink’s Max and Dacre Montgomery’s Billy first appeared in season 2, or when Maya Hawke’s Robin first appeared in season 3. Even after taking on the role of Hawkins’ kids’ “pseudomom” in the second season, Joe Keery’s Steve Harrington experienced a new wave of public adoration. However, there hasn’t been a response to a Stranger Things character—or perhaps to any TV character over the previous few years—that has experienced as much love and devotion as Eddie Munson, played by breakout star Joseph Quinn, has. For example, the TikTok hashtag EddieMunson has received 16.4 billion views, which is 4 billion more than #SteveHarrington, a character from the Stranger Things universe since 2016. The “cult of Eddie Munson” was honoured even by Metallica.
Early 2000s teenagers had crushes on geeky outsiders like Seth Cohen in The O.C. and Jess Mariano in Gilmore Girls, but current teen dramas don’t really fulfil that want. Even if shows like Euphoria and the Gossip Girl reboot are incredibly entertaining, they don’t always represent universal experiences for the ordinary viewer. Stranger Things creates characters that appear like people you might know yet being firmly steeped in the paranormal subgenre.
Similar to how they did with Seth Cohen and Jess Mariano, many young fans are drawn to Eddie Munson because he exemplifies those qualities. His loud on-screen introduction calls out the hypocrisy of his Dungeons & Dragons group being called “freaks” for playing a fantasy game, when the label doesn’t apply to those who conform to mainstream activities, like playing sports or partying, while stomping on tables in the high school cafeteria. Eddie’s sensitive and humble nature, however, come through in the quieter scenes, such as when he finds struggling cheerleader Chrissy (Grace Van Dien) in the woods, offers her something to soothe the terrors she has been going through, and lightens the mood by pretending to be dead.
