‘Stranger Things’ Creators Matt and Ross Duffer Took ‘Time to Mourn’ the End, Share Hopes for a 2025 Release: ‘Quite the Push’
Matt and Ross Duffer spent most of last year filming the final season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” and they can’t help but feel “mixed emotions” now that production has wrapped.
“It was definitely sad,” Ross Duffer says of their last day in December. “We’re not going to tell the story with these characters anymore, with that crew or those actors. We were all exhausted, but at the same time, we all had to take some time to mourn the loss of it.”
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The duo will take a moment to reflect as they accept the Variety Showrunner Award at the SCAD TVfest. “We don’t usually get these kind of things, so we’re very honored this is happening,” Matt Duffer says.
The brothers will jump right back into post-production, though, which will occupy a huge chunk of their year. “Right now, we’re just cutting all the visual effects sequences for the show so they can get started on those, so that they can be running in time for a release,” Matt adds.
And when might that be? “A lot of it hasn’t been decided, in terms of exactly the release dates and cadence,” he says. “That’s one reason I’m not allowed to talk about it. We’re getting on a call in about a couple weeks about it. I just know it was very important for us and Netflix that we get it out this year. But even that is quite the push.”
There’s still much that needs to be done before fans can catch the fifth chapter of “Stranger Things” and learn what ultimately happens to the gang from Hawkins and the fate of the Upside Down.
But Ross says they’re “working as fast as we possibly can,” knowing that it’s been nearly three years since we last saw our young heroes. “Even Season 4, we cut that so tight. We were dropping in visual effects shots the day after the launch! So hopefully we’ll be a little more on schedule this year … now it’s just sort of climbing up another hill as we head towards finally finishing this.”
Wait, don’t you mean “Running Up That Hill”? The Duffers chuckle: That 1985 Kate Bush track became an unlikely megahit in 2022 thanks to its inclusion in Season 4. As they edit Season 5, the Duffers wonder what moment might turn into the next surprise in the zeitgeist.
“You can’t really manufacture it,” Matt says. “If you try to manufacture it, you’re almost guaranteed for it to not hit. The Kate Bush thing, I thought that episode was cool, and I love Kate Bush. But no, I wasn’t expecting it to resonate with Gen Z in a particular way. But that is one of the fun things about putting it out. I know the things we’re excited about, but usually, from the Kate Bush aspect of it, those come out of left field. I’m sure that will happen again. That’s part of the cool thing: You put it out into the world, and it does things that you expect and then does things that you don’t expect.”
Meanwhile, the pair, who have split their time between their L.A. home and their Atlanta production base for the past decade, are excited to return to Georgia to pick up their honor. “It’s been sort of a second home for us,” he says. “The crew has been incredible. The city itself has just meant a lot to us. Beyond the people, it’s such an amazing location in terms of what we can find and were able to turn it into Hawkins, Indiana.”
What happens for the Duffers after the “Stranger Things” finale? “It’s been nine years of our lives just telling this one story,” Ross Duffer says. “So there’s certainly some anxiety of, what’s next, and what’s it going to be like? Luckily, we’re able to just focus on the edit, so those thoughts aren’t overwhelming us yet. But I’m sure they will be.”
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