With 9 amazing episodes, Stranger Things season 4 was a long and good one, including the finale which clocked in at two-and-a-half hours.
Previously the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers (Matt and Ross Duffer) have confirmed that season 5 won’t be as long as its predecessor and now we know how many episodes it will consist of.
On Twitter, the Stranger Things writers shared a photo of the final season being planned out, with eight episodes on the board, captioning it: “Grid stage.”
Grid stage pic.twitter.com/b8EmBsafUF
— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) August 25, 2022
Fans were quick to pick up on the double line between episodes four and five – and if this meant there would be a time jump or significant event, but the powers that be were giving nothing away.
“Not a time jump. Does it mean anything? [thinking emoji],” they mysteriously replied.
Speaking about the final season’s length to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, Matt Duffer said: “I don’t think the runtimes will be as extreme in season 5. We’re trying to return to the simplicity of the structure in season 1, with bigger scale and scope.”
However, he insisted there will be an exception for the final episode, which he predicts will be “pretty massive”.
“The runtimes being as long as they were was something of a surprise to us,” Matt explained. “Ross and I have been trying to analyse how they ended up that long because the scripts aren’t even that long.
“We’ve realised that our writing style has changed a little bit in terms of how we space out description. I think that added to some length. Also, we had an additional plot with Hopper in Russia. It’s a pretty dense season. We weren’t sure they were that long, really, until we got into editing.”
The writer then highlighted that one benefit of having a show on a streaming service is that it doesn’t have to stick to a specific runtime for each episode.
“You’re not beholden to advertisers in the way that television used to be,” Matt explained.
We still don’t have an official release date for Stranger Things’ fifth and final season but at least we know they’re hard at work at it.
Stranger Things seasons 1-4 are now streaming worldwide on Netflix.
