Stranger Things Reveals Eddie Munson's Dad Was Worse Than We Thought

"Stranger Things" has no shortage of tragic characters, but few pull on the heartstrings more than Joseph Quinn's Eddie Munson. First introduced in Season 4, Eddie is a misunderstood outcast at Hawkins High School who finds himself at the center of a witch hunt during Vecna's (Jamie Campbell Bower) spate of sinister murders. While he befriends Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and the rest of the usual "Stranger Things" team, he ultimately sacrifices his life in the Upside-Down to save them — an honorable legacy that the public can never know about.

Eddie's arc in "Stranger Things" Season 4 is sad enough, but the season also heavily implies that the high school student has also dealt with some pretty heavy stuff in his past. Neither his mother nor his father are in the picture, and he lives with his uncle Wayne Munson (Joel Stoffer) instead. Surprisingly, the backstory of Eddie's relationship with his dad in particular is even worse than fans could have imagined. As Caitlin Schneiderhan's new prequel novel "Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus" reveals, Eddie's dad isn't just lacking as a father. He's also not above using his son to achieve his own selfish ends.

"Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus," which takes place two years prior to Season 4 of the Netflix series, sees Eddie's life turned upside-down when his deadbeat dad Al Munson suddenly re-enters his life. However, it's not a teary family reunion — Al is only back to get Eddie to be his partner-in-crime in the hopes of scoring some cash by stealing. That's bad enough, but as one part of the book (which is readable on Netflix TUDUM) reveals, Al has been training Eddie to be a thief since he was a child.

The book pulls few punches in portraying Eddie's dad as a major piece of work, and his actions recontextualize a lot of how fans understand the young metalhead as a character. As such, it's a little surprising that the topic of his dad doesn't come up a little more often in the actual TV show. However, it turns out that Joseph Quinn has actually been channeling some of Eddie's paternal angst all along, developing a loose backstory for the character. "I thought that his mum had maybe passed on or had left, and his dad was in prison," Quinn said. "He was very estranged from his parents, and that brings up all the stuff that brings up for young people."

Al Munson isn't winning any favorite character awards from the "Stranger Things" fan base any time soon, but they also haven't yet seen the last of him. A younger version of the character is set to appear in the new prequel stage play "Stranger Things: The First Shadow," in which he'll be portrayed by Max Harwood.