Matt and Ross Duffer know what the fans want for Stranger Things season five, the final season of the Netflix series, and are planning a perfect way to wrap things up.
While attending a For Your Consideration panel, the Stranger Things creators teased what they are planning for the upcoming season as it finishes the writing process and heads into filming next year. Producer Shawn Levy and stars Millie Bobby Brown, Caleb McLaughlin, Priah Ferguson, Jamie Campbell Bower, Joseph Quinn, and Eduardo Franco were also in attendance.
Patton Oswalt led the panel and asked a final question: give us a scoop on the show’s last run. Ross Duffer teases how they’ll wrap this journey and how it reflects on what came before. It seems a big theme will be homaging Stranger Things itself.
Ross Duffer says, “Five, the way we see it, is kind of a culmination of all the seasons, so it’s sort of got a little bit from each. Whereas before, each season was so distinctly… [Season] 3 is our big summer blockbuster season with big monsters, and [Season] 4 was the psychological horror. I think that what we’re trying to do is go back to the beginning a little bit, in sort of the tone of 1.”
As the team wraps up writing the premiere episode, titled “The Crawl,” Ross Duffer adds that a significant focus is being put on characters and completing their arcs: “Just as important as the supernatural, we have so many characters now, most of whom are still living. It’s important to wrap up those arcs because a lot of these characters have been growing since Season 1, says Ross. “So, it’s a balancing act between giving them time to complete their character arcs and tying up these loose ends and doing our final reveals.”
Filming on the eight-episode fifth and final season is expected to begin next year, with Netflix aiming for a 2024 release.