Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have expanded what fans can expect from the fifth and final season of their ’80s Netflix phenomenon.
The two filmmakers were asked during a Sunday night panel at the streamer’s Tudum Theater in Los Angeles if there are any new influences from ’80s pop culture that will shape the final season, much as A Nightmare on Elm Street and its villain Freddy Kreuger did this summer’s two-part fourth season.
“[Season] 5, the way we see it, is sort of the culmination of all seasons, so it has a little bit of each,” Ross Duffer said to a full house. “I think what we’re trying to do is go a little bit back to the beginning, in a kind of tone 1. But also scale-wise, it’s more aligned with what 4 is. So hopefully there will be a bit of everything.”
A key factor that sets Season 5 apart from the rest, according to Matt Duffer, is that the danger the world is in is now “quite evident” — not just to our teenage heroes from the town of Hawkins, Indiana, but to theirs Parents and the rest of their community as well.
Stranger Things, for the uninitiated, is a sci-fi drama that follows a group of Midwestern teenagers as they battle supernatural forces connected to an alternate reality called The Upside Down. The series’ final season begins months after the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath and getting separated for the first time, our group of friends are breaking up — and navigating the complexities of high school hasn’t made things any easier. In this extremely vulnerable time, a new and terrifying supernatural threat emerges, representing a gruesome mystery that, if solved, could finally bring an end to the horrors of Upside Down.
The Duffers were joined for today’s panel – hosted by Patton Oswalt – by director EP Shawn Levy and longtime cast members Caleb McLaughlin, Priah Ferguson and Millie Bobby Brown – with the latter joining in virtually. Others making in-person appearances included season 4’s popular newcomers Joseph Quinn, Eduardo Franco and Jamie Campbell Bower.
While the conversation was short on key takeaways from Season 5, Ross Duffer confirmed that the writing team is “on to the second” episode after submitting the first script to Netflix “a few weeks ago.” (The title for the Season 5 premiere is “Chapter One: The Crawl,” Netflix revealed just last week.)
Ross shared that the team is “full steam ahead” with the writing process, having already developed “an overall plan and backstory” for The Upside Down in Season 2, which will be answered over the course of Season 4, and will continue to be so in the show’s final year “quite a lot” to unravel. “But as important as the supernatural, we now have so many characters, most of whom are still alive,” Duffer continued. “It’s important to complete these arcs because a lot of these characters have grown since Season 1. So it’s a balancing act between giving them time to complete their character arcs and also tying up those loose ends and making our final reveals. ”
Levy concluded by saying that the Duffers are looking to achieve the balance they are able to achieve. “I’m paralyzed with fear of spoiling anything, but I have to say, the thing about these Duffer brothers is that even though the show has become so famous and the characters so iconic, they’re so touching on the ’80s and the supernatural and the genre, it’s about these people. It’s about those characters,” he said. “Season 5 is already paying so much attention to these character stories because that’s always been the lifeblood of Stranger Things.”
Stranger Things earned 13 Emmy nominations in its fourth season, with wins in prosthetic makeup, sound editing, sound mixing, music supervision, and stunt coordination. Produced by Monkey Massacre Productions and 21 Laps Entertainment, the show was renewed for its fifth and final season in February, though it’s not yet clear when that final chapter will hit Netflix. Levy Executive produces alongside Dan Cohen for 21 Laps, as well as the Duffers, Iain Paterson and Curtis Gwinn.