The fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” is upon us, with the first four episodes of the eight episode season premiering on November 26. The next three episodes will follow on December 25, with the series finale arriving on Netflix on New Year’s Eve, December 31.
The runtimes for the first four episodes were revealed earlier this week, and creators Matt and Ross Duffer reveal during a massive conversation published by Variety this morning that the show’s final episode will essentially be a movie rather than a mere episode of television.
According to the Duffer brothers, the final episode will run “around two hours”!
That actually wouldn’t even be the longest episode of “Stranger Things” in the show’s history, as the show’s Season 4 episodes were routinely feature length affairs. The Season 4 finale ran 2 hours, 22 minutes long, longer than most movies you’ll find playing in your local theater.
As for the rest of the episodes in the upcoming fifth season, the premiere has a 1-hour and 8 minute runtime, Episode 2 clocks in at an even 54 minutes, Episode 3 will run 1 hour and 6 minutes, and Episode 4 runs 1 hour and 23 minutes. The runtimes for the other episodes of “Stranger Things 5” have not been officially revealed at the time of this article’s publication.
But that’s enough about runtimes. What can you actually expect from the final season of “Stranger Things”? The Duffer brothers tease in their new chat with Variety, “We do every last remaining thing we wanted to do with the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer and Vecna and the Upside Down and Hawkins and these characters. This is a complete story. It’s done.”
The Variety article also reveals that there will be an 18-month time jump from Season 4 to Season 5, with Season 4 ending with the Upside Down spilling over into the town of Hawkins.
One thing you shouldn’t expect from the show’s finale? It won’t be playing in theaters. Netflix’s Bela Bajaria tells Variety, “A lot of people — a lot, a lot, a lot of people — have watched Stranger Things on Netflix. It has not suffered from lack of conversation or community or sharing or fandom. I think releasing it on Netflix is giving the fans what they want.”
It’s interesting to note that the Duffers are leaving Netflix behind to set up shop at Paramount beginning next year, a decision largely driven by their desire to make movies that will play up on the big screen. Netflix is deeply committed to their movies and shows being exclusive to their streaming platform, with many filmmakers cutting ties over that very mindset.
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