‘Stranger Things’ Bosses Reveal Shocking Season 5 Secret

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Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of Stranger Things, shared a surprising detail about how they made the fifth and final season. In a new Netflix documentary called One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, they admitted they began filming without a fully finished script for the last episode.

Matt Duffer explained in a documentary that they began filming the season finale before the script was fully completed. He admitted it was a nerve-wracking situation, as the finale was the most crucial episode of the season and they were determined to get it right.

Ross Duffer mentioned the uncertainty surrounding the ending sparked a lot of debate about how the story should conclude. He explained that the final episode had to focus on Eleven making a huge sacrifice, stating, “The entire episode needed to lead to the idea that Eleven would give her life.”

Matt warned that having too many surprises could exhaust viewers. To avoid this, they decided to leave some parts of the story unclear, and this ultimately shaped how the season ended.

The documentary captured heartfelt goodbyes between cast members as filming wrapped up. Fans will likely have strong feelings about the Duffer brothers revealing this, particularly considering the discussions surrounding the show’s ending and the planned, but ultimately cut, extra episode.

Season five, set to be released in two parts concluding in late 2025, focuses on the group’s fight against Vecna after cracks begin to appear all over Hawkins. The season starts in the fall of 1987, with Eleven on the run from the military and Hawkins under strict lockdown. As the anniversary of Will Byers’ vanishing nears, the friends must come together to confront a terrifying new danger.

The fifth season of Stranger Things features a star-studded cast 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, Priah Ferguson, Linda Hamilton, Cara Buono, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Nell Fisher. Supporting actors like Joe Chrest and Sherman Augustus also make appearances. Critics generally praised the new season.

Chloé Zhao directed this season, with Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, and the Duffer brothers producing it. Zhao is an Oscar winner, known for her film Nomadland. The season finale was shown in cinemas across the U.S. and Canada on December 31, 2025, earning over $25 million in ticket and concession sales from 620 theaters. Netflix boosted its streaming capacity for the premiere, but the site still experienced a temporary outage shortly after the first episode launched.

I was so excited when they announced a theatrical release! I heard from Ross Duffer that they’d been planning it for over a year, but the way they handled pre-sale tickets was a little strange – they were basically vouchers because of things in the cast’s contracts. Still, seeing the finale on the big screen was amazing. It really wrapped up the stories of Eleven and all our favorite characters, and it felt like a proper ending to this chapter.

The creators of Stranger Things have acknowledged how difficult it is to make a show of that size. They started filming before the script was fully finished, which is a big risk, but it worked – the latest season was a hit with both critics and viewers.

The making of Stranger Things season 5 highlights just how uncertain creating a TV show can be. It offers viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative decisions and tough choices the show’s writers and producers faced.

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2026-01-12 20:18