‘Stranger Things’ creators Matt and Ross Duffer wrap up some key questions from season 4 and tease what lies ahead in the fifth and final season…
SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN STRANGER THINGS SEASON 4, VOLUME 2
“Stranger Things” season 4 reached an epic conclusion with the release of Volume 2, which consisted of two super-sized episodes clocking in at nearly 4 hours of total run time.
The end came with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger after Vecna managed to crack open a massive gate between the real world and the Upside Down where he serves as the ruler. While all of the characters from Hawkins were finally reunited — including Eleven’s heartfelt moment seeing Hopper alive and well again — that doesn’t mean they’re out of trouble.
In fact, in the closing moments of the final episodes, the strange ash that falls constantly in the Upside Down started falling in Hawkins, signifying that the wall between the two worlds has started to fall and Vecna is still very much alive with plans to take over.
In a new interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Matt and Ross Duffer — the creators behind “Stranger Things” — wrapped a bow on some of the lingering questions from season 4 before then teasing what’s still to come in the fifth and final season of the show.
First things first, let’s talk about the body count from those two episodes that closed out season 4.
When it comes to Dr. Martin Brenner, who previously was attacked by a Demogorgon in season 1 yet survived to make his return in season 4, is sadly gone forever this time after he took several bullets trying to escape a bunker with Eleven in his arms after the U.S. military invaded. According to the Duffer brothers, there will be no resurrection for Dr. Brenner this time.
Papa is truly dead.
“Yes, for real this time,” the Duffer brothers said about his fate. “Definitively. He’s toast.”
Sadly new fan favorite Eddie Munson is also dead after he sacrificed himself to distract the Demobats from potentially going after Dustin and crossing over between the two worlds during a planned attack on Vecna in the Upside Down. Eddie forced the demobats to chase him but the creatures eventually caught up to him and inflicted so many wounds that he was not able to recover.
Despite a huge reception for the character, Eddie won’t be back for season 5:
“Sadly, yeah [he’s dead],” the Duffer brothers added. “We sort of saw Eddie as a doomed character. He was really designed from the get-go as a doomed character. Eddie was sort of hurdling towards his doom this whole season.”
Finally there’s Max Mayfield, who was targeted by Vecna throughout the season as a potential victim and despite playing a whole lot of Kate Bush, she eventually allowed Henry Creel to invade her mind once again with hopes that her friends could stop him. Despite Eleven’s best efforts, Vecna was still able to snap Max’s bones and take her life.
Thankfully, Eleven used her powers to somehow bring Max back from death but that doesn’t mean she’s in good shape right now. When Eleven tried to connect with Max through her mind, she only found black, emptiness where he friend’s mind once resided.
“She’s brain dead but she’s alive,” the Duffer Brothers confirmed. “Brain dead and blind and all of her bones broken. She’s seen better days.”
When it comes to “Stranger Things” season 5, which will be the final season of the series, the Duffer brothers weren’t giving away too many secrets, especially since production on those episodes isn’t even close to starting yet.
The Duffer brothers have said in the past that they know how the story in “Stranger Things” will end but how they arrive there is still to be determined.
“It’s dangerous as a writer to be writing hours and hours and not know where you’re going,” the Duffer brothers said. “I’d rather leave some of that middle journey vague and fuzzy.
“But so long as you know where that destination is, it sort of gives you that clarity. It’s like that lighthouse blinking in the distance … while a lot of Season 5 is actually pretty blurry, the last 30 minutes of it are pretty clear in our heads. So if we can make the journey entertaining, I think that we have an end that will hopefully satisfy. You can’t satisfy everyone, but the hope is that it’s something that feels right for this story.”
Unlike season 4, “Stranger Things” season 5 will also stay grounded in Hawkins, Indiana, which the Duffer’s say is a real callback to the first season of the series. After splitting up so many of the characters in season 4 with some in California, others in Hawkins and then a prison break in Russia, things will condense quite dramatically for the final season.
“We wanna go back to a lot of the things we did in Season 1,” the Duffer brothers said “A lot of the original groupings and pairings that we had in Season 1 – there’s something nice about coming full circle.”
As far as the length of the season or the episodes, the Duffer brothers couldn’t pinpoint exactly what is planned just yet but they did say that expectations shouldn’t be similar to season 4 where the final two episodes alone clocked in at nearly four hours.
That said, “Stranger Things” fans should expect a super-sized finale that will almost serve as a full length movie to finish the story for these characters.
“The only reason we don’t expect to be as long is, this season, if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery,” the Duffer brothers explained. “You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they’re struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve’s trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in season 5]. We’re more likely to do what we did here, which is to just have a 2.5 hour episode [for the finale].
“For the first time ever, we don’t wrap things up at the end of [Season] 4, so it’s going to be moving. I don’t know that it’s going to be going 100 miles an hour at the start of 5, but it’s going to be moving pretty fast. Characters are already going to be in action. They’re already going to have a goal and a drive, and I think that’s going to carve out at least a couple hours and make this season feel really different.”
Stay tuned for more information on “Stranger Things” season 5 as the series gets closer to production.
