Alexei Smirnoff

About

Alexei Smirnoff is a wholesome Russian scientist character featured in season three of the Netflix series Stranger Things who became known for enjoying Slurpees and his untimely demise.

Origin

On July 4th, 2019, Netflix released season three of Stranger Things which featured a Russian scientist character, Alexei, who worked with Joyce Byers and Murray Bauman to help save the town of Hawkins by revealing Soviet plans to unlock a portal to the upside down. The character was then killed by a Russian hitman after winning a stuffed animal at a fair.^[1]

Spread

On July 5th, 2019, Twitter users began commenting on Alexei's lovable character and his unfortunate death. Twitter user @vstraighttohell^[2] posted stills from the show commenting that Alexei "deserved better" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 140 likes in three days. That day, after many fans took to the internet in praise of Alexei's character, the actor Alec Utgoff posted a still from the show to Instagram^[3] commenting,

"Thank you everyone for your warm welcome and support!!! I was really touched that you enjoyed our arc and resonated with the character😊 I tried answering as many people as I could😂 As this is quite simply impossible with my responsibilities at home I’d like to thank you for all your kind energy in all the messages I read and in turn I wish you all the happiness and successes in your family, professional and personal lives😀❤️ Enjoy the weekend!Love, Al "

The instagram post garnered over 108,400 likes in three days. On July 7th, the subreddit r/StrangerThings was covered with images paying tribute to the character. That day, Redditor SidTheSloth posted an image to r/StrangerThings^[4] describing Alexei as the most lovable character (shown below, right). The post received over 1,100 points (98% upvoted) in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References