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It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for an answer about Stranger Things season 5. The series began filming in January 2024 and is still ongoing as we move into the second half of the year. We still have no idea when Netflix will release season 5, but thanks to Robin’s portrayer Maya Hawke, we have a rough idea of why it’s taking so long.
She’s refused to reveal any plot details to anyone, even her famous father, but Maya Hawke explained to the Podcrushed podcast why it’s taken so long for us all to get back to Hawkins. Previous delays have been out of anyone’s control, such as season four being paused due to the 2020 pandemic and season five being paused by the 2023 Hollywood strikes. However, a big reason why season five is taking so long is the sheer size of the episodes.
“Our showrunners, Matt and Ross (Duffer), have a lot of responsibility. They have a fantastic writing team, but they’re very dedicated,” she explained on the podcast. “They write a lot and are very intense and serious about the quality of the writing going forward. It takes a long time to write each season and it takes a long time to shoot it.”
Specifically regarding the fifth season of Stranger Things, Hawke added: “We’re basically making eight movies. The episodes are very long.”
That doesn’t mean we’ll get eight two-hour episodes, but each of them will probably be more like 90 minutes. Much like Game of Thrones extended its usual runtime to accommodate everything they wanted to do to wrap up the story in the final season, we can assume that the Duffer Brothers and Netflix want to take their time giving each character their big moment in season five. That would certainly explain why production is running for most of 2024.
Netflix’s Stranger Things is heading into its grand finale – the main series, that is. While you wait, make sure you’ve watched the entire franchise (including the spinoffs in books and comics) with our Stranger Things guide, learn who’s in Stranger Things season 5, and what things like Dustin-starring Gaten Matarazzo would make the series better (more deaths).
