In celebration of Return to Hogwarts, and in anticipation of Season 4 of Stranger Things, the Sorting Hat has grouped your favorite characters from the magical universe of Hawkins, Indiana into their rightful Hogwarts houses. Of course, there are a lot of courageous, loyal Gryffindors in Stranger Things. There are also some brainy, curious Ravenclaws; some friendly, kind Hufflepuffs; and some ambitious, potentially-evil Slytherins. If some of these choices are controversial, it’s only because the characters are so good that it’s hard to place them in only one house!
Mike Wheeler – Gryffindor
Mike (Finn Wolfhard) is centrally concerned with doing what’s right and protecting his friends. Like fellow Gryffindors, Harry, McGonagall, and Dumbledore, Mike is a leader at heart, working hard to discover what the best choices are and then convincing others to go along with those choices. Mike would make a good politician or school headmaster someday.
Eleven – Ravenclaw
Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) may not be as outwardly intellectual as Dustin, but she has incredible mental abilities that far exceed those of other characters. She essentially has magical powers, but this is only because she underwent almost-academic training for how to channel the full potential of her mind to perform magic. Eleven is also a brilliant puzzle-solver, but she does not have the same language or social skills as her peers (especially at first), so she struggles to communicate the knowledge that she already has. Eleven’s counterpart from the Harry Potter universe is Luna Lovegood.
Joyce Byers – Gryffindor
Joyce (Winona Ryder) is focused, above all else, on protecting her family, and she is brave enough to face any obstacle to rescue Will. She is even brave and loyal enough to continue pursuing her line of thinking – that Will is still alive and that she can talk to him through the lights/electricity – even though everyone else thinks she has gone insane. Joyce stands up not only to her enemies (Dr. Brenner, demogorgons, etc) but also to her friends and family (Jonathan, Hopper, Lonnie, etc). She does not give up until she gets everyone to listen to her and believe that Will is still out there and that something supernatural is going on.
Jim Hopper – Gryffindor
Even though Hopper (David Harbour) is the Hawkins Chief of Police, he is also willing to break rules in order to ultimately uphold justice (such as breaking into Hawkins Lab or punching the mayor to get answers). Just as the Gryffindors in Harry Potter refuse to obey the Death Eaters who work at Hogwarts or the Ministry of Magic, Hopper refuses to submit to the corrupt people from the government and Hawkins Lab who try to keep him in the dark about what truly happened to Will, Barb, Eleven, and other citizens of Hawkins. Part of being a Gryffindor is the ability to distinguish between what is legally right and what is morally right, even for a police officer like Hopper.
Dustin Henderson – Ravenclaw
Most of the kids on this show are smart, but Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) often takes the lead in terms of figuring out tough problems. For example, he notices all of the compasses are broken, suggesting there is a very strong magnetic pull, and he uses this to discover how to find the door to the Upside Down. This brainiac would thrive in Ravenclaw, where he would continue to take the lead at figuring out tough scientific puzzles.
Lucas Sinclair – Hufflepuff
This might be a controversial choice, but the sorting hat says Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) belongs in Hufflepuff. Although Lucas is highly intelligent, brave, and loyal (characteristics he shares with his Gryffindor and Ravenclaw friends), Lucas is more cautious and less of a risk-taker than the others. He prefers to play it safe, advocating to tell Mike’s mom about Eleven rather than keep her a secret, and not trusting Eleven at all initially. Lucas values “the party” (his friends) and his family, and will fight to defend them but generally prefers to avoid conflict if possible.
Nancy Wheeler – Gryffindor
At first, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) seems to be too preoccupied with boys and alcohol to do anything productive in terms of saving Hawkins, but she proves herself a true Gryffindor when she steps in to figure out what happened to Barb, and to save her little brother’s friend. Once she separates from Steve, she is able to blossom into her true self, fighting to get to the truth behind the strange occurrences in Hawkins and hoping to write about them in the newspaper.
Jonathan Byers – Gryffindor
Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) is a true Gryffindor in the sense that, like Harry Potter, he will break almost any rule if he thinks it will ultimately help save the day. Jonathan constantly disobeys Joyce, Hopper, and other authority figures and takes matters into his own hands, which ultimately does help save the day a few times. Jonathan is fiercely loyal, and he will do anything, even face the demogorgon or venture into the Upside Down, to rescue his brother.
Steve Harrington – Gryffindor
Steve (Joe Keery) starts out, in Mike’s words, as a “douchebag,” but he later becomes one of the best characters once he learns to prioritize being a good and happy person over being “cool.” Even though Nancy had just broken up with him, Steve steps in to help Nancy and Jonathan fight the demogorgon. He also becomes a good friend to the younger kids, protecting them several times from monsters and even being willing to sacrifice himself to save them. A jokester with a heart of gold, Steve’s counterparts in the Harry Potter universe are Fred and George Weasley.
Will Byers – Gryffindor
Will (Noah Schnapp) is a sweet, sensitive boy who gets kidnapped by a monster and taken to a dark, alternate dimension in the pilot episode. Some might place Will in Hufflepuff, but, like the Gryffindor Neville Longbottom, Will demonstrates unrivaled bravery despite being sensitive and getting bullied at school. In Season 1, Will is a victim and has to be saved, but in Seasons 2 and 3, Will takes on a more active role, sharing his knowledge about the Upside Down and the monsters with others in order to defeat these evils and save Hawkins.
Max Hargrove – Slytherin
Max (Sadie Sink) is a skateboarding, video game-playing badass from her first appearance on the show. Always trying to spice things up, Max loves breaking up and getting back together with Lucas; convincing El to spy on Mike and break up with Mike; and ridiculing Dustin. Max is not one of those evil Slytherins, though–she is just a ball of fire trying to have fun and take life to the next level.
Billy Hargrove – Slytherin
Billy (Dacre Montgomery) was always a Slytherin (of the Lucius Malfoy type) even before he got possessed by the monster. However, once he is possessed by the monster, Billy slowly evolves into a Bellatrix Lestrange-type of Slytherin. He ultimately abandons the concern with public appearances that he used to have, and turns into a complete loose cannon obsessed with bloodlust.
Erica Sinclair – Slytherin
Erica (Priah Ferguson) is all about ambition and making money. A harsh critic of communism and lover of capitalism, she agrees to help Dustin, Steve, and Robin get to the secret Russian lair, but only if they promise her a lifetime supply of free ice cream from the store where Steve and Robin work. Erica is always thinking about how she can get ahead. She is highly intelligent, but resents the label of “nerd,” preferring instead to draw attention away from her intelligence by making snarky comments meant to roast her friends. Erica will probably grow up to be very, very rich.
Robin Buckley – Ravenclaw
Only a Ravenclaw could translate a secret Russian code into English (when she doesn’t even speak Russian), and then crack the code to figure out where the door to the Upside Down has been opened again. True, Robin (Maya Hawke) had the help of Steve and Dustin, but she did most of the real work.
Bob Newby – Hufflepuff
Although Bob (Sean Astin) is a hero, this does not automatically make him a Gryffindor. And although he is somewhat of a tech genius, he is not a Ravenclaw. Bob is a Hufflepuff, driven by kindness and love. He is sweet, silly, loveable, non-threatening, and often not in on all the secrets. He sometimes allows Hopper to bully him. In true Hufflepuff fashion, Bob sacrifices himself to save Joyce and the others at the end of Season 2.
Dr. Brenner – Slytherin
Even though he is highly intelligent, Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) uses his brain for evil, like Voldemort and other Death Eaters. True, Brenner is motivated by curiosity and he is doing his experiments in order to learn, but he commits heinous crimes in the name of research that a Ravenclaw would never commit. Dr. Brenner wants to learn more about the human mind at all costs–he will tell lies, commit murders, kidnap children, or allow children to die.
Tommy H and Carol – Slytherin
These two are the worst, which Steve Harrington thankfully realizes after a while. All they care about is being “cool,” and their favorite thing to do is insult others. They are mean to Jonathan the day after his brother disappears, and they are mean to Barbara even though she is amazing. Their counterparts in Harry Potter are Crabbe and Goyle.
Barbara Holland – Hufflepuff
Barbara (Shannon Purser) has a heart of gold. Even though she is sheltered and kind of a party pooper, she tries her best to help her best friend Nancy by shielding her from boys and alcohol. However, Barb meets an untimely death because of her Hufflepuff qualities. After giving into peer pressure, Barb is still unable to open a beer properly to shotgun it. Instead, she cuts her hand with the knife, thereby luring the demogorgan to come attack her while she waits outside for Nancy to finish having sex with Steve. Some Hufflepuffs are just too good for this world.
Mr. Clarke – Ravenclaw
The science teacher who encourages his students to seize every opportunity for a “curiosity voyage,” Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens) is clearly a Ravenclaw. He even answers the phone in the middle of the night to explain to Dustin (for purely “hypothetical” purposes) how to build a sensory deprivation tank. Mr. Clarke would be the Head of Ravenclaw House.
Murray Bauman – Ravenclaw
A former journalist and a connoisseur of conspiracy theories, Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) resembles Xenophilius Lovegood (Luna’s father). He is a quirky intellectual who is often brushed aside as “crazy” and, consequently, people don’t always believe Murray. However, Murray is right about almost everything, such as Hawkins Lab, Jonathan and Nancy, Hopper and Joyce, and evil Russians in Hawkins. He eventually learns that there are certain parts of the truth that the masses will never believe, so he has to work with Nancy and Jonathan to tell only certain parts of the story, to achieve the same ends of shutting down the dangerous experiments of Hawkins Lab.