Stranger Things creators shut down big Season 5 finale theory

by

Just one month before the first part of Stranger Things Season 5 arrives on Netflix, the show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, have been giving interviews. In a recent one, they debunked a popular fan theory about how the series will end.

It’s taken a while to get to the final season of Stranger Things, especially with production being delayed since Season 4 came out in May 2022. This long wait has given fans plenty of time to come up with theories, and the creators, the Duffer brothers, have definitely noticed!

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things will be released in three volumes. The first part will be available in November 2025, followed by the second in December, and the concluding episodes on New Year’s Eve, bringing the story to an end.

This will be the final season of the show, as confirmed by its creators, the Duffer brothers. Fans are eagerly anticipating the ending, and every small detail – even how long each episode will be – is being closely examined. The creators recently addressed questions about the runtime.

Duffer brothers shut down Stranger Things Season 5 finale theory

Matt Duffer recently told Variety that the reported lengths of the *Stranger Things* Season 5 finale circulating online are incorrect.

The long wait between seasons four and five has led to a lot of guessing, and fans have been carefully analyzing every small piece of news for clues.

Last year, while on the Podcrushed podcast, Stranger Things star Maya Hawke revealed that the show’s fifth season was so ambitious, it felt like they were creating eight separate movies.

Her remark sparked the idea that each episode will be longer than usual, with the season finale potentially lasting three hours.

One Reddit user shared that, after hearing Maya Hawke describe each episode as ‘almost a movie,’ they expected them to be quite long – around 90 to 120 minutes each, with the final episode potentially lasting up to three hours.

Someone else mentioned that the creators, the Duffer brothers, intend for the first seven episodes to be standard length, but the finale will be much longer – around two and a half hours.

Someone else predicted that the first seven episodes will likely be around two hours long each, and the final episode will probably run between two hours and forty minutes and three hours.

Maya Hawke, who plays Robin, and the creators of the show, the Duffer Brothers, have stated that the episodes in this new season will be more expansive than those in season four, both in terms of how they were made and how long they are. They’ve also consistently mentioned that the finale will be even bigger than the season four finale.

The creators, the Duffer brothers, have indicated that previous predictions about the length of the final season are incorrect. We should anticipate that both the Season 5 finale and the finale of Part 1 will be longer than typical episodes.

“Episode 4 and Episode 8 are like movies,” Matt added. 

Duffer brothers talk new plans after Netflix

The brothers also discussed their upcoming move to Paramount Pictures. They signed a four-year deal with the studio in August 2025, but it won’t begin until April 2026, after their current contract with Netflix ends.

With this new agreement, the production company Upside Down Pictures, founded by the pair, will develop, create, and oversee film, television, and streaming content for Paramount.

This new agreement allows the Duffer Brothers to also work on film projects, while continuing to create series for Netflix, such as the animated Stranger Things spin-off, Tales From ’85.

Although their main goal is to create new films for Paramount, they shared with Variety that they would also consider working with established franchises owned by the company, if they find a project they genuinely like.

Upside Down Pictures plans to create TV series with shorter seasons, typically eight to ten episodes, instead of the longer seasons often seen on traditional networks like CBS.

Honestly, I totally get tired of those super long TV seasons with 20 or more episodes. Growing up, my friends and I were movie people – that’s all we watched! It’s funny, actually, because we ended up working in TV, when we barely even *liked* watching it back then.

He said their show would be released like *Stranger Things*, with longer gaps between seasons. He believes releasing shows annually can lessen their impact, and he prefers to create anticipation with each new season.

The first part of Stranger Things Season 5 will be available on Netflix on November 26, 2025. While you wait, you can explore predictions about which characters might not survive the final season, learn about the time jump in Season 5, and see what other new shows are coming in 2025 with our release calendar.

Read More

2025-09-26 14:51