The last installment of Stranger Things is bringing tears along with its Vecna-induced terror. Over the weekend, creators Ross and Matt Duffer teased the direction of their show’s fifth and final season, telling the audience at a Los Angeles event that their pitch had invoked waterworks from the steely execs at Netflix.
“We turned in the first script a couple of weeks ago and we’re onto the second. It’s full steam ahead,” Ross said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I remember season one. We were just amazed that Netflix was letting us do this at all, but season two was when we really, with the writers, developed an overall plan and a backstory for all of this and made sure that, with the Upside Down, everything about what it was.”
David Harbour is already gearing up to film the final season of Stranger Things. Ahead of Season 4’s debut on Netflix, series creators Matt and Ross Duffer announced that the show would be back for a fifth and final season. The Duffers and the rest of the show’s diligent writers’ have been hard at work crafting Season 5 since early August, and filming is set to begin sometime in 2023. Collider’s Editor-in-Chief, Steve Weintraub, recently sat down with Harbour to discuss his upcoming holiday thriller, Violent Night. During their conversation, Weintraub made sure to check in with Harbour as he prepares to film the final episodes of Stranger Things next year.
“It will be my goodbye to Jim Hopper,” Harbour told Collider, “which is a big deal. Fortunately, I feel like I have a long time to say goodbye because I think we’re going to take a long time shooting these episodes.” For those who need a refresher, Harbour plays the former chief of police, back from the dead, Jim Hopper on the series. In Season 4, Hopper was reunited with his love, Joyce Byers, after she broke him out of a high-security Russian prison. At the end of the finale, he was also reunited with his superpowered would-be daughter, Eleven, as the whole adventuring party prepares to face off against Vecna in the final battle for Hawkins, Indiana.
That completed arc was presented in a two-hour meeting at Netflix, where Stranger Things season four remains the most popular English-language TV show in its history. “We did get our executives to cry, which I felt was a good sign that these executives were crying,” Matt said on Sunday. “The only other times I’ve seen them cry were like budget meetings.”
