Is Stranger Things trying to recreate the Barb phenomenon with a new character?

With the latest bit of Stranger Things 3 casting news, we have to wonder if production remembers how Barb became a thing and wants to do that again.

Stranger Things blew Barb up — not literally, but in terms of merchandising after the first season. Sure, #JusticeforBarb became a thing, but it was, at least at first, pretty organic. With all the other memes that have come out of the show, having Barb fever die down a bit has felt rather freeing.

Then we get to the latest news from Deadline, that Stranger Things has cast someone as “the centerpiece of a dark mystery.” Her character’s name is Heather, and she’s a lifeguard.

This isn’t to say that Hawkins can’t use more awesome female characters. We love Jane, Erica, Nancy, Joyce, Max and yes, even Barb. We welcome Heather coming on in and making things more interesting. But the fact that we don’t learn anything about her in this other than that she’s going to be the object of a mystery and that she’s a lifeguard seems to be rather reductive.

Granted, this show has a lot of room for complexity, and this is only a casting announcement. We’re hopeful that whenever we actually meet Heather, she’ll be more than that. However, the fact that we already know that something bad will probably happen to her makes us worry that no matter if she does get interesting characterization, it’ll be overshadowed by what happens to her, and she’ll become a meme.

Does anyone remember that Barb actually had some interesting character beats in relation to Nancy? Well, we do, but it seems like all of that has fallen by the wayside in service to the meme that is Barb.

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We’d hate to see that happen to another character in Stranger Things. One’s more than enough, thank you.