All good things must come to an end, and, in contrast to a lot of great shows that overstayed their welcome (*Cough* Game of Thrones, though House of the Dragon has been something of a redemptive tonic), it seems like Stranger Things is going to pull the plug at the right time.
Four seasons in, we finally know – more or less – what the endgame is following the feature-length season four finale, and season 5, which has already been announced as the show’s last, is shaping up to be a beast of a conclusion to Netflix’s biggest series.
We were expecting to see production begin for Stranger Things season 5 last year, but the writers’ strike threw a bit of a spanner in the works. (Something something, David Zaslav is more evil than Vecna, something.) We now know that it will pick back up in January, meaning the home stretch is upon us. Here’s everything else we know about the final season so far.
The Duffer Brothers know the pressure is on to end the series with a bang
How do you wrap up a show that – over seven years – has snowballed into the kind of phenomenon that can make superstars out of its unknown cast and shoot a 40-year-old song to the top of the charts? It’s something the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers, are very aware of. “Endings of shows are like opening a restaurant in terms of the success-failure rate – there’s an 80% failure rate, I’d say,” said Matt Duffer. “But I think one very particular way to fail is to attempt to appease everybody. We have a huge variety of fans that span a huge age range and I’m sure they have all their own ideas of how they want the show to end. But we’re not consulting social media on this.”
The entirety of season 5 is now written, and the pair seem content with where they’ve decided to park the ship. “It was funny: once we got there, it just felt right and we’re going to go for it!”
Despite trying to block out the voices of the Mind Flayer-esque Twittersphere (let’s hope they’re more successful than Henry Creel in that respect), the brothers say they have pulled out all the stops for the show’s final outing to make sure as many people feel satisfied by the ending as possible. “This season – it’s like season one on steroids,” said Matt. “It’s the biggest it’s ever been in terms of scale, but it has been really fun, because everyone’s back together in Hawkins: the boys and Eleven interacting more in line with how it was in season one. And, yes, there may be spin-offs, but the story of Eleven and Dustin and Lucas and Hopper, their stories are done here. That’s it…”
That backs up something they said earlier this year with regards to streamlining the show’s stories in the lead-up to its finale and re-focusing on what made the series such a hit in the first place. Speaking to IndieWire, Matt Duffer said “We’re doing our best to resist [adding new characters] for Season 5. We’re trying not to do that so we can focus on the OG characters, I guess.”
Will “takes centre stage” in Stranger Things season 5, according to the Duffers
Noah Schnapp opened up on the next season of Stranger Things in a Variety profile, in which he also spoke about coming out as gay — and how that was informed by the coming out of his character in the show, Will.
