‘We created Netflix’s Stranger Things – fan reactions for season 5 are terrifying’

It’s been 10 years in the making. A story that’s captivated the world, bridged the gap between generations, and restored faith in original storytelling.

Finally, Stranger Things – one of Netflix’s most-viewed TV shows ever – is coming to an end.

Metro recently had the chance to catch up with the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers – aka Matt and Ross Duffer – ahead of the release date for season 5 volume 1, which is now out on the streaming platform.

They admitted that the prospect of fans finally reacting to the final adventure is ‘terrifying’ – which seems like a perfectly understandable response, when the torrent of people going on Netflix to binge it the second it was released caused the streaming platform to crash.

‘You have ideas of how they’re gonna react, but you never know,’ Matt tells us during an interview at a London hotel, the same week as the premiere in the English capital.

‘Sometimes you put out a season, and what you think is gonna resonate with the fans does in fact resonate. And then there’s elements that surprise you – things you think are going to really connect with them, don’t. And then other things you weren’t expecting were going to connect with them, really do.

‘This is both a terrifying and really fun part of the process, which is actually putting something out that we put three and a half years into, but we’re really proud of the season.

‘I think the actors are really proud of the season. So hopefully, the fact that us, our writers and the actors are confident in it, we’ll see.’

Fans are already going absolutely wild over the first four episodes in the final season. ‘The ending of episode four was literally so cinematic. This would’ve been awesome seeing it on the big screen,’ a fan called Giselle wrote on X, while another called Hailey added: ‘The ending of episode four truly gagged me, best ep so far.’

In my five-star review for Metro, I wrote: ‘The final moments of episode four gave me full-body chills and had me on the verge of screaming. Stranger Things season five volume one will remind you why you fell in love with TV in the first place.’

Stranger Things has been a decade in the making for the Duffer Brothers, who shared with us how ‘emotional’ it was to film the final episode.

The tale began in 2016, transporting audiences to the year 1983 in Hawkins, Indiana, when an innocent friendship group of boys with a shared passion for Dungeons & Dragons is changed forever when one of their number, Will (Noah Schnapp), goes missing.

The three remaining boys meet a young girl, known as Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who they discover has superhuman abilities of telekinesis and telepathy, to name just a couple.

For the twin filmmakers, saying goodbye to these beloved characters proved far harder than they ever thought it would be when the time came to film the actors’ final scenes.

‘On a sheer, gut-punch emotional level, the final episode was hard to film,’ Matt reveals.

‘First of all, it had the most logistically challenging things we’ve ever put on camera, and also the dramatic portion of it was really hard, because it’s saying goodbye to these characters that we came up with 10 years ago, and more than that, the actors who played them.’

Ross chimes in, adding that while the original cast are now grown up, the new season brings the youngest Wheeler child, Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher), into a ‘major role’, alongside several of her classmates.

‘The intensity of the show has gone up a lot since season one. So we’ve got intensity up, and these young kids that are put in these harrowing situations. So in terms of horror, that really ups the ante this year,’ he toulines.

In season five volume one, two actors in particular give massively standout performances – Cara Buono as Karen, the matriarch of the Wheeler family, and Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, who’s been a fan-favourite character from the start.

Karen has previously been shielded from the darkness of the Upside Down, while her son Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and daughter Nancy (Natalia Dyer) fight the forces of evil that dwell within. But not anymore.

‘We see new sides of certain people. It was really fun, because we’ve been having to withhold the supernatural from certain characters, Karen being one of them for many, many years,’ Ross explains

‘We thought, once we did, it opened up this can of worms. Karen’s just going to take her family out of Hawkins, no matter how much Mike and Nancy protest. But this being the final season, we’re like, we don’t have to hold back anymore. So that was really fun to see that side of it.’

Referencing Karen’s fierce daughter Nancy, he continues: ‘Nancy’s not tough like that for no reason, and she certainly didn’t get it from Ted. So it was really fun to showcase that side of Karen.’

Meanwhile, at the start of season five, Dustin is no longer his sparky self. The teenager is in a dark place while grieving the death of his friend, Hellfire Club leader Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn).

‘Gaten, he is incredible this year,’ Matt says. ‘Because of what happened at the end of season four with Eddie, that has really had a major impact on his character.

‘Gaten’s always been a fantastic actor, and we knew that, so we pushed him this year to see how far he could take it. He’s incredible, you really do see a different side of him this year, and you see Gaten reach new levels as an actor.’

Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 is available to stream from Thursday November 27 on Netflix.

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