Duffer Brothers Talk “Stranger Things” Season 5 Finale Runtime & What The Upside Down Really Is

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The fifth and final season of *Stranger Things* will be available on Netflix later this year, and it promises to be a grand finale for fans.

The new season will consist of eight episodes released in three parts. The first two sets of episodes will be available on November 26th and December 25th, and the final set will be released on December 31st. The Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, and Dan Cohen are producing this concluding season.

Most of the original cast will be back for the new season, including Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Brett Gelman, and Priah Ferguson. Amybeth McNulty, who had a guest role before, is now a series regular, and Linda Hamilton joins the cast as a new member.

Season 5 begins a year after the previous season’s events. It’s fall 1987, and Hawkins is in turmoil following Vecna’s opening of gateways to the Upside Down.

The friends come together again to defeat Vecna, but things get more difficult when the military shows up, particularly for Eleven. With the anniversary of Will Byers’ vanishing drawing near, the group must confront a final, dangerous threat.

The Duffer Brothers recently told *Variety* what to expect from the final season. They said most episodes will be about an hour long, but Episode 4 is a bit longer at 83 minutes, and the season finale will be approximately two hours long.

Matt Duffer shared that a major question they kept putting off was the origin of the Upside Down. They debated whether to explain it each season, but ultimately decided to wait until now. He said, “We finally realized we had to address it!”

When beginning Season 5, the writers explored all possibilities. As co-writer Dichter explained, they started with a blank slate, considering every character’s fate. “Anything could happen,” he said. “Characters could live, die, or end up in unexpected relationships.”

Trefry explained, “Sometimes they weren’t even together on screen. As the show neared its ending, the writers focused on creating a grand spectacle without relying too heavily on computer effects, ensuring the audience remained invested in the characters and their motivations.”

The team focused on staying true to the show’s central ideas. They wanted to avoid being sarcastic or self-aware, instead aiming to capture a sense of innocence and how to hold onto it even as life gets difficult.

Trefry explained that writing the series finale was a lengthy process involving many revisions. They repeatedly wrote, reviewed, and rewrote sections, constantly refining the story. It was a cycle of writing, receiving feedback, and starting over again and again.

Matt Duffer explained that they’d known the ending of the show for a long time. While some details were debated for weeks, the central idea was established years ago and wasn’t something they struggled to create.

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2025-10-15 22:14