Let's hope season five delivers on both the spooks and the tears.
The 'Stranger Things' final season might be some time away (expect it on Netflix at some point in 2024), but we'll take any and all teases of what to expect, especially off the back of that explosive season four.
It turns out the co-creators of the series, The Duffer Brothers, have already pitched season five to Netflix executives, and the two-hour meeting resulted in the bigwigs crying out of pure love for what they heard play out.
Speaking at an event in LA over the weekend, Ross and Matt Duffer and executive producer Shawn Levy said it's "full steam ahead" with their preparation for the final season of what is essentially one of Netflix's most popular franchises ever. With production expected to begin early in 2023, the creative team first have to impress their TV bosses with the final season outline - but it sounds like they're far from getting dragged into the Upside Down for now.
Joined by some of the stars from the series, including Caleb McLaughlin, Joseph Quinn and Jamie Campbell Bower, Ross cemented the idea that season five will concentrate on the already-established characters instead of introducing any new ones into the fold: "It’s important to wrap up those arcs. A lot of these characters have been growing since season one so it’s a balancing act between giving them time to complete their character arcs and also tying up loose ends and doing our final reveals."
Matt Duffer then joked that their original pitch of the final season of 'Stranger Things' resulted in the Netflix bosses shedding tears for the storyline rather than the budget: "We did get our executives to cry, which I felt was a good sign that these executives were crying. The only other times I’ve seen them cry were like budget meetings."
Shawn Levy added "those were different tears," as The Duffer Brothers are "clearly taking care of these stories [...] because that’s always been the lifeblood" of the series.
The final season of 'Stranger Things' will be a "culmination of all of the seasons" according to Ross Duffer. He added: "I think that what we’re trying to do is go back to the beginning a little bit in the tone of [season] one, but scale-wise it’s more in line with what [season] four is. Hopefully, it’s got a little bit of everything."
One of the biggest question marks fans will have going into season five is whether Max (played by Sadie Sink) will wake up from her coma. Of course, it's largely expected that she will eventually, but will she then share some sort of connection with the big bad of the series, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower)? Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is going to need some help defeating him, after all.
Back on November 7, 'Stranger Things' Day AKA the day that Will went missing in The Upside Down, the title of the first episode from season five was released - 'The Crawl'.
Stream all four seasons of 'Stranger Things' on Netflix.
