New ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Details Straight From The Showrunners

Fans who have just finished Stranger Things season 4 are eager to hear what’s up with season 5, and thanks to some new post-finale interviews, we have a lot more information we used to. This fresh batch of Stranger Things season 5 information comes straight from the showrunners themselves, the Duffer Brothers, who spoke to the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Wrap) about plans for season 5, and what they can share so far.

Here are some of the highlights. On finale length:

“I would expect the finale to be at least two hours,” said Matt Duffer.

On the overall length of the season:

“The only reason we don’t expect it to be as long is because if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp-up before our kids really get drawn into the supernatural mystery,” Matt said. “You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, what they’re struggling with, adapting to high school and so forth. Steve’s trying to find a date, all of that. None of that obviously is going to be occurring in the first two episodes of [Season 5].

On the pacing, given the imminent threat:

“For the first time ever, we don’t wrap things up at the end of 4, and so it’s going to be moving. I don’t know that it’s going to be going 100 miles an hour at the start of 5, but it’s going to be moving pretty fast,” Matt said. “Characters are already going to be in action, they’re already going to have a goal and a drive, and I think that’s going to carve out at least a couple hours and make this season feel really different. I’m sure the wrap-up will be a lot longer, it’s going to be ‘Return of the King’-ish with, like, eight endings.”

In addition to this info, they say that the series will return to Hawkins alone as the main location, a difference from season 4 where characters were also in Russia, Nevada and California at times. They also say that while much of season 5 is still “blurry” as they begin writing in August, the actual last 30 minutes of the series are already clear in their head. Elsewhere, it’s been said that Will will be a heavily featured character in season 5, more so than he’s been the last few seasons as the one who has a direct connection to Vecna.

Finally they conclude by saying…all this can change. They talk about they originally planned that season 4 was probably going to be eight, hour-long episodes, and instead we got nine with two 90 minute and one 2.5 hour episode “so I wouldn’t trust a word that comes out of my mouth,” said Matt Duffer.

No release date yet, but 2024 seems to be the best guess right now. Stay tuned.

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