The history-making Netflix series is back streaming for the grand finale. “It can be sad, it can be scary, it can be funny.” Interview with the creators of “Stranger Things”

Over the years, Netflix has launched numerous series that have become global phenomena, watched in streaming by tens or hundreds of millions of people around the world. But few of them can boast like “Stranger Things” that they wrote a page in the history of pop culture. The two creators of the series, brothers Ross and Matt Duffer, explained to the HotNews.ro audience what to expect from the new streaming season, which will also be the last.

• Season 5 of the series Stranger Things went streaming on Netflix on Thursday, November 27, when the first 4 episodes were released. The next 3 will be released on December 26, and the grand finale, a movie-length episode, will be available from January 1, 2026;
• HotNews spoke with brothers Ross and Matt Duffer, the creators, head writers, directors and executive producers of Stranger Thingsabout the new season of the popular series;
• “I feel like we've been able to pack into season five everything we wanted to do and say, and we've spent a lot of time making sure that's the case,” says Matt Duffer.

Released in the summer of 2016, Stranger Things garnered ardent fans almost immediately, with one of the things that quickly stood out being the many references to 80s pop culture. Since then, the series has become a pop culture phenomenon in its own right, with a franchise that has grown to include a series of novels and comics, several video games, an extensive range of licensed products, and a play that premiered in November 2023 in the West End, the famous British theater stage, and then on Broadway.

Among other things, the series Stranger Things it propelled Millie Bobby Brown to the status of the highest-paid young actress in the world, brought Winona Ryder back to the fore as a leading actress after a period in which her career had fallen into a shadow cone, and made David Harbor a sought-after actor in Hollywood for “blockbuster” films. The previous season of Stranger Thingsreleased on Netflix in 2022, was one of the most watched productions in the history of the streaming platform, with more than 142 million unique views and more than 546 million hours of viewing.

But perhaps most telling of the show's success and status as a pop culture icon was the way songs like Running Up That Hill of British performer Kate Bush and Master of Puppets by Metallica have returned to the top of the music charts decades after their release, after being featured on the soundtrack of Stranger Things. In fact, Netflix briefly went down on Thursday when the new season was released due to the sheer number of fans flocking to the site to watch it.

Netflix has meanwhile ordered two spin-off series inspired by Stranger Thingsalthough the American streaming company has so far offered very few details about them, beyond the fact that one will be animated and the other live-action. We asked the Duffer brothers about the latter and more.

What to expect from the new season of the Netflix series

– HotNews.ro: We had season four ending with a double tragedy, with Eddie dying and Max going into a coma. Where are we at the beginning of season five?
– Ross Duffer: Well, Max is still in a coma, Eddie is dead, so it's already a rough start. And then, to make matters worse, the land in Hawkins is split open and therefore quarantined, so all of our characters and the people of Hawkins are stuck here.

Vecna ​​and all our evil have now gone very quiet for a very long time, and yet our characters still think he's out there somewhere, planning something, and it's almost uncanny how quiet he is, because they don't know what he's planning, and they spend their time and days trying to get into the Overturned World and find out where he is, and hopefully kill him to end things once and for all.

– I want to ask a question that I also asked director Hwang Dong-hyuk when I had the opportunity to speak with him about season 2 of Squid Game. I think the mystery factor played a big part in the initial success of both series, and in Stranger Things we gradually learned where the monsters come from, Eleven's powers, who Vecna ​​is, among other things. Will there be another major mystery in season five, or is it more of a big final battle to wrap up all the loose ends?
– Matt Duffer: No, it's a lot of mystery, and until the last episode of the series. We don't know exactly what the Overturned World is, so you'll find out, there's a lot about Henry and the Mind Flayer that aren't known, so I'd say those are probably the two biggest remaining mysteries, and a lot of them we've been planning since season one. So it was really satisfying to finally be able to face the cards, so to speak.

The series “Stranger Things” will end with season 5

– Season five is and will be the last, so I want to ask what was one of the most important things you wanted to get right to make sure it didn't disappoint the fans and diminish the legacy of the show?
– Ross Duffer: Well, for us, it really comes down to those final minutes of the show, because we knew we could make ten hours of great entertainment that people love, but if you stumble at the end, right before the finish line, that's what people will be talking about.

We've seen this happen with so many great, long-running series, and so a lot of time was spent making sure those final minutes were great. And I actually had the basic idea for it for a very long time, years and years, so when we started writing with the other fellow screenwriters, that's where we started. We started with those last ten minutes and we talked about them, and we made sure we felt confident that those last ten minutes were going to be great, and then we kind of built the season around them, making sure that every choice we made led to those final minutes, and that gave us the confidence going forward.

– Speaking of inheritance, Stranger Things has become a pop culture phenomenon in its own right. It is quite known how songs like Running Up That Hill and Master of Puppets they returned to the music charts decades after their release, after being aired in the series. I'm curious, what was the most impressive or emotional thing of this kind for you personally, or maybe a lesser known one?
– Matt Duffer: I don't know. It continues to surprise us every year in terms of what resonates with audiences and what doesn't. You never know. I mean, you spend years on this (no serial) and release it to the world.

I would say that last season that… let's call her the kind of phenomenon Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill it was probably the most surprising and satisfying thing I've experienced in the history of the show, maybe with the exception of the first season — the fact that season one resonated with as many people as it did. That was and always will be the most exciting part of the series. But yeah, we're big fans of Kate Bush, and to see her resonate with so many young people was just really cool for us, and for Kate Bush.

What is the message of the series “Stranger Things”?

– Over the years, the series has been called many things and described in many ways. How would you describe it, to be able to say after the last episode aired, “This is what we did, this is what we really wanted to do?”
– Ross Duffer: You know, the series is many things. It can be sad, it can be scary, it can be funny, it can be emotional, I guess. But at the end of the day, we see it as a coming-of-age story. I think when people watch this last season and finally see how it wraps up and wraps up, that's how we want it to be viewed instead of, you know, a supernatural mystery series. It's like, “No, this is about childhood, it's about growing up and becoming an adult and maturing and all the challenges that come with growing up.” So that's how we see it, at the end of the day.

– Looking back, is there anything you really regret not doing differently on the show? Or maybe something you really wanted to do and only got the chance until season five?
– Matt Duffer: Well, yes, season five was our opportunity to do everything we've always wanted to do with the show. I feel like we were able to pack into season five everything we wanted to do and say, and we spent a lot of time making sure that was the case.

We spent a lot of time with our writers asking, “Okay, what do we want to say with the show? What do we want to do with the characters? What do we want to do with the plot and the mythology?” And I'm glad we managed to include it all. In terms of regrets from previous seasons, obviously [că au existat]. I mean, you do hours and hours of entertainment, especially those early seasons—very, very quickly—and you learn so much every season. But what you try to do is apply those lessons to the next season.

But on the other hand, you want to keep challenging yourself and keep taking big risks. And some succeed and some don't. So I would say in this final season we took every lesson from every season and tried to apply it to this season.

Series creators don't want Netflix to make 'Stranger Things' a franchise like 'Star Wars'

– The end of the series Stranger Things it does not mean in a sense the end Stranger Thingsor not 100% since we know we'll have two confirmed spin-off series. And I'd like to ask you about the live-action one, since you said in a recent interview for Variety that you don't want that Stranger Things to become like Star Warswith an ever-expanding canon and universe. And what I want to ask you is what can you tell our audience about it?
– Ross Duffer: Well, it's very early days as far as the live action spin-off series goes. But I will say that we closed the door, in our minds, on Hawkins and Mike and Dustin and Eleven and all these characters. Their story is over. So it's another decade. There are new characters. There's a lot of new mythology. It still connects to the main series in a way, but it really stands on its own.

And I think that's why we were excited when we came up with this idea years ago, because we didn't feel like we were telling the story [viitoare] just because we have to go on Stranger Things as a franchise. It was more like, “Even if that wasn't related to Stranger ThingsI'd be excited to tell that story.” And that's all we can rely on as we expand the universe or the world Stranger Thingsor whatever you want to call it.

It's just, “Is this a story worth telling and something we really want to bring to an audience?”