It’s certainly no secret that Stranger Things 4 is set to be a colossal season — with a mammoth runtime for each episode and a massive jaw-dropping finale that’s etched in as over 2 hours long. However, according to Matt and Ross Duffer, the supersized season was totally unplanned while the pair were in the early stages of writing it.
While speaking with The Wrap, the Duffer duo touched upon the conversation they had with the show’s line producer, who informed them that the season was going to be “double the size” in comparison to prior seasons — which makes sense considering season four’s massive plot that features many of its central characters split up and living in separate locations.
No. No is the short answer because, actually, we had our line producer tell us … He didn’t say it was going to be long, he was just like, “I think this is double the size in terms of scope, scale of Season 3.” And I just said, “No. I don’t think so.” And then, as we were writing it, it just … And I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we had characters spread out in three different locations, and we have a lot more plot. I mean, it must be quadruple the plot we had from Season 3.
Season 3 was our fun, blockbuster season. This season, we knew Season 5 was going to be our last, we had to start revealing a lot. And the more we were writing, the more we realized, we need more time in order for these reveals to land, in order for these storylines to work. We knew partway through that we needed to ask Netflix if they would be okay if we did nine episodes instead of eight, and then slowly, as we started shooting them, we realized, Oh, these are mega-long episodes.
In comparison to season three, Stranger Things 4 will take the show to heights that even diehard fans have yet to experience thus far. In that same interview, the Duffer brothers explained that because they knew season five would be the last, they needed to put all of their eggs in one basket when it came to the horror-esque penultimate season.
Vol. 1 of Stranger Things 4 is available to stream now on Netflix.