Eddie Munson, the breakout character on the new fourth season of Stranger Things, keeps getting more metal by the day. Now, it turns out that the Dio back patch on his denim jacket was actually gifted to the popular Netfilx series by the estate of the late legendary metal singer Ronnie James Dio.
We’ve already heard from actor Joe Quinn, who said in a recent interview that he “listened to a lot of heavy metal” to prepare for the role of Munson. Now, the show’s costume designer, Amy Parris, and Dio’s widow, Wendy Dio, have revealed that Eddie’s jacket back patch was created from a vintage t-shirt delivered by Wendy to the show’s costume department.
In a Q&A posted on the Netflix website, Parris told the story behind the back patch, saying, “I love Eddie. I think Eddie feels so real. And he’s wearing one thing, because he’s in that outfit the whole time, so I really focused and zeroed in on making sure everything in that outfit was authentic.”
She added, “He’s a fan of wizard metal, he’s a fan of Dio. He’s a fan of Metallica. Actually, Dio was a popular band in the ’80s, and we reached out to the estate [of the late Ronnie James Dio to source a band shirt]. His wife is in charge of his estate and offered to send us vintage T-shirts, which was such a dream.”
Wendy, meanwhile, mentioned that Stranger Things reached out to her about using a Dio shirt back in a 2020 interview. And the official Dio Twitter account recently posted a pic of Eddie’s back patch, adding, “It was great to see this vintage DIO design on the recent episode of @Stranger_Things! Eddie loves DIO!”
Under his jacket, Munson sports a “Hellfire Club” t-shirt, representing Hawkins High School’s Dungeons & Dragons club. Find out where you can grab a similar shirt, and see the aforementioned post from the official Dio Twitter account below.
It was great to see this vintage DIO design on the recent episode of @Stranger_Things! Eddie loves DIO! 🤘🏼 pic.twitter.com/NiH7CUw8Ak
— Official Dio (@OfficialRJDio) May 30, 2022