Nancy Wheeler is a Final Girl in Stranger Things. She is portrayed by Natalia Dyer.
Stranger Things[]
Season 1[]
Nancy is the oldest child of Ted and Karen Wheeler, and the older sister of Mike and Holly. Nancy's best friend Barbara doesn't approve of Nancy's new boyfriend Steve Harrington, as he's an outcast at their middle school. When her friend Jonathan's brother Will goes missing, she distances herself from Steve's group of friends, who all think Jonathan is responsible for Will's disappearance. However, when Barbara goes missing, Nancy jumps back into the investigation, also feeling guilty because Barbara disappeared while Nancy was with Steve. She aligns herself with Jonathan and they discover Barbara has been taken to an alternate dimension called The Upside-Down by a creature called The Demogorgon. Nancy is taken to The Upside-Down but escapes after Jonathan helps her.
Jonathan and Nancy sleep next to each other the night of her rescue, which is misinterpreted by Steve, who assumes they're cheating. He begins to slut-shame Nancy and provokes a fight with Jonathan. After Steve's arrest, Nancy contacts her friend Mike Wheeler, who has found a girl named Eleven who has a mysterious connection to The Upside-Down. They use her to locate Barbara and Will, though Eleven shares that Barbara is dead, furthering motivating Nancy to kill the demon.
They previously recruited Joyce, Will and Jonathan's mother, and Sheriff Hopper to their investigation. Joyce and Hopper enter The Upside-Down to save Will, who remains in the clutches of the dimension. Nancy and Jonathan lure the Demogorgon to their house with blood, but Steve arrives and nearly ruins the plan. He decides to help them and saves them from the monster, which allows it to be lured to Eleven who seemingly kills it.
During Christmas, Nancy rekindles her relationship with Steve and spends time with the Byer's family, including Jonathan, who still doesn't tell Nancy he loves her.
Season 2[]
On the evening of October 29, 1984, Nancy entered her room to discover Mike stealing money from her piggy bank. She tried to stop him, but he managed to outrun her.
While in the school parking lot the following morning, Nancy was looking over Steve's college essay when they witnessed Billy Hargrove and Max Mayfield arrive. Later that day, after receiving a flyer for Tina's Halloween party, she tried to convince Jonathan to attend. However, he refused, saying he planned to go trick-or-treating with Will.
That night, Nancy and Steve had dinner with Mrs. and Mr. Holland. When Nancy inquired about the 'For Sale' sign in their yard, they revealed they had hired Murray Bauman, a private investigator, to investigate Barb's "disappearance". Overcome with grief, Nancy excused herself to the bathroom, where she began crying over the loss of her friend.
The next day, as Nancy and Steve were studying in the school library, she noticed a person who resembled Barb, reigniting her grief. She then told Steve that they should tell Barb’s parent’s the truth about her death. After reminding her that it would be too dangerous to do so, Steve managed to convince Nancy not to say anything and to go to that night’s Halloween party so that they could have a normal night.
That night at the party, Nancy became intoxicated. Steve tried to get her to stop drinking, accidentally spilling Nancy’s drink on her costume. While attempting to clean herself, Nancy revealed to Steve that she did not really have feelings for him. Upset, Steve left, leaving Nancy to try cleaning her costume again. Nancy was later taken home by Jonathan. As she put to bed by Jonathan, she drunkenly reached out to him before passing out.
The next day, Steve did not arrive to take Nancy to school, making her miss her first period class. After she arrived at the school, she found Steve in the gym, losing a basketball to Billy. When they went outside to speak privately, Nancy asked Steve why she had not seen him that morning, only to be met by a cold response from him. When Steve asked what she remembered from the party last night, Nancy told him all she could remember was dancing, getting drunk, and going home where she believed Steve to have taken her, only for Steve to reveal that it was actually Jonathan who took her home. Nancy became confused over why Jonathan took her home, causing Steve recount the other events of the party to her where she blamed him and herself for causing Barb's death, how she felt about their relationship, and revealing she did not love Steve. Though Nancy had no memory of her drunken state, she tried to assure Steve that what she said wasn’t true, but when she didn’t tell him that she loved upon his request, he left which made Nancy realize how badly she had hurt Steve's feelings.
During lunch, Nancy spoke with Jonathan for confirmation of the party’s events where he revealed that he did take Nancy home after the party due to Steve asking him to do so when Nancy revealed she did not love him and blamed him and herself for Barb's death while intoxicated. When Jonathan tried to comfort and reassure her that people say and do things they don't mean when getting drunk, Nancy revealed she wondered if she meant what she said to Steve and confided in Jonathan, telling him how hard she pretended to feel like everything was fine while really it was not. When Jonathan expressed he felt the same way, Nancy pointed out it was different for him as Will was able to come back alive while Barb did not. However, Jonathan revealed to her that despite Will being brought home, his brother had changed greatly in personality and behavior, making it difficult to try to help him. Nancy then expressed her anger and how tired she was of the people at Hawkins National Laboratory have gotten away with what they have done. Though Jonathan reassured her the people at the lab were dead, Nancy expressed her doubts and asked Jonathan if he really believed the people were dead, leaving him unable to respond to her question. When Nancy saw a student listening to music on his radio, she remembered Jonathan's mom's boyfriend having a job at RadioShack and got an idea on a way to possibly expose the lab. After telling Jonathan of her idea, they both skipped fourth period and went to RadioShack to buy a Walkman.
After school and buying the Walkman, Nancy went home with Jonathan and had a brief short conversation with her mom where she and Jonathan told her they have to study for a test before they proceeded upstairs to Nancy's bedroom. When they go into her bedroom, both Nancy and Jonathan express their doubts on the plan, but they proceeded to do it anyway. Nancy, although hesitant, called Mrs. Holland, telling her that she had not been honest about Barb and to meet her at Forrest Hills Park the next morning while knowing the lab would be listening to their phone conversation before Nancy ended the chat and hung up the phone.
The next morning, while eating breakfast with her family, Nancy, needing a cover in order to expose the lab to the authorities, asked her mom if she could spend the night at her friend, Stacey's house which her mom says yes to. After eating breakfast, Nancy left home and met with Jonathan who was waiting for her at the end of Maple Street. When Nancy got into Jonathan's car, she tried to convince him that he did not had to help her with the plan, but Jonathan said he wasn't backing down and that he will stand by her no matter what. With that said, Nancy and Jonathan proceeded to head to Forest Hills Park.
After they arrived at the park, Nancy and Jonathan waited to meet Mrs. Holland, only to find their waiting was taking longer than they expected it to be. As they viewed their surroundings, they had a suspicion of being watched, prompting them to leave. Once they got inside Jonathan's car, Nancy started to panic as Jonathan had trouble starting his engine. They were then approached by government agents, disguised as civilians, who proceeded to take Nancy and Jonathan to Hawkins Lab.
After being taken to the lab, Nancy and Jonathan were locked in an interrogation room where they waited for hours to meet with someone. Eventually, they were greeted by Dr. Sam Owens, the new head of scientist of the lab who proceeded to give them a tour of the lab. When Owens admitted his predecessors' nefarious deeds, calling them "mistakes," Nancy countered his predecessors had killed Barb and kept a cold attitude towards the scientist as he further admitted the crimes committed by the lab and how he wanted them to be kept a secret from the public. As Owens showed Jonathan and Nancy the Gate to the Upside Down, Owens admitted he cannot fix his predecessors' mistakes, but he can stop them from spreading, giving off the example of what would happen if the Soviet Union learned about the Upside Down and tried to open a portal to the dimension. Nancy and Jonathan then watched in silence as a worker burned some vines surrounding the Gate while Owens grew confident that he gave the two older teens a valid point in why the Upside Down must be kept a secret before releasing them. Once in the car, Nancy revealed the Walkman, having recorded everything that Owens had said.
Nancy and Jonathan then traveled in the direction of Bauman's location, spending the night in a motel. While there, they showed each other their matching scars, reminiscing about their previous adventure. Nancy asked what happened between them, saying that she waited for Jonathan before ultimately ending up with Steve again. Jonathan retorted by saying she only waited a month and he was busy looking after Will. No more was said and the two went to sleep.
When they arrived at Bauman’s residence, they presented the recording of Owens. Bauman claimed it wouldn’t be enough evidence to shutdown the lab, as it could easily be destroyed and the details of the story would be too extraordinary for the public to accept. He then proposed to Nancy and Jonathan that they “water down” their story in order to make it more appealing to the public. After altering their story to say that Barb died from a chemical leak originating from the lab, they placed the evidence in several envelopes to be sent to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Murray offered Jonathan and Nancy his guest room, presuming the two were a couple. When they denied this, he easily deduced that there was sexual tension between them. Murray bid them goodnight and left them restless over his statements of their issues withholding them from getting together. Eventually, Nancy and Jonathan gave in and kissed one another before sleeping together in the guest room.
The morning after, Murray cooked them breakfast, satisfied that his deductions were true. As they were saying goodbye to Murray, he told them to never return or contact him again.
Upon arriving back in Hawkins, they realized something was wrong upon seeing the Byers' household strewn with Will's drawings of the underground tunnel system. They traveled to Hawkins Lab where they were soon met by Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Max emerging from the woods after hearing noises from the lab. Nancy also found that the power was turned off because there were no lights turned on and the gate to the lab was not opening.
When the power was restored and the gate unlocked, Nancy and the rest of the group went to the lab’s front entrance were they met up with Hopper, Joyce, Mike, and Will. The group then traveled back to the Byers’ house.
Once it was determined that they’d have to interrogate Will in order to discover the Mind Flayer’s weakness, Nancy assisted in turning the Byers’ backyard shed unrecognizable. During Will’s interrogation, he signaled in Morse code the way to stop the Mind Flayer: closing the Gate. Soon after, the phone in the Byers’ kitchen rang, allowing the Mind Flayer to know their location and send a pack of Demodogs their way.
However, Eleven arrived and eradicated them. Together, the group came up with a plan: Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy would exorcise the Mind Flayer from Will's body while Eleven and Hopper would go to the lab and close the gate. After taking Will to Hopper's cabin, Joyce, Nancy, and Jonathan restrained him, surrounding him with numerous heaters. This eventually caused the piece of the Mind Flayer possessing Will to be expelled from his body.
Sometime later, Nancy attended the funeral for Barbara which was held after the revelations forced Hawkins Lab to acknowledge their involvement in the coverup of Barb's death after Murray revealed the evidence Nancy and Jonathan presented to him.
On December 15, Nancy volunteered at the Snow Ball, serving drinks. She and Jonathan were still together, sharing a smile as Jonathan was taking photographs. When Nancy noticed Dustin sitting on the bleachers alone after being rejected by numerous girls, she offered to dance with him. As they danced, she told him that girls that age are “dumb”, and assured him that in a couple of years he’d “drive them nuts.”
Season 3[]
Season 4[]
The Ones Who Failed[]
- The Demogorgon attacks Nancy and Jonathan at the Byers home after being lured there by the pair. They are saved by Steve Harrington, who injures the creature.
- The Mind Flayer
- Demodogs attacked the Byers house while the group is inside. Eleven successfully saves everyone using her powers.
- Vecna
Kill Count[]
- Bruce -
Trivia[]
Nancy's Fandom trading card
- In 2023, Nancy was featured in the Final Girls Trading Cards deck for Fandom's Final Girls on the Final Day of Women's History Month.