As Netflix’s flagship TV series, the minds behind Stranger Things have been given plenty of creative freedom and leeway to craft subsequent seasons of the smash hit sci-fi fantasy in any way they see fit.
While that’s a commendable approach given that so much of the streaming service’s content has clearly been defined by the algorithm above all else, that sense of free reign has often tiptoed into over-indulgence, especially when it comes to the episode length and gap between new seasons.
The bad news is that anyone expecting the fifth and final run of adventures in Hawkins to arrive even remotely soon is that the Duffer Brothers have taken to social media and relayed the news that pre-production on Stranger Things 5 has been halted as a result of the writers’ strike, meaning that shooting won’t kick off next month as intended.
There was a gap of almost three years between the third and fourth seasons, and it’s looking as though we can expect the same again when it comes to the penultimate and final chapters. Let’s say that Stranger Things 5 lands in 2025, which isn’t out of the question when conservative estimates initially had it pegged for the summer of 2024, and it will have taken nine full years to tell the story of the core crew saving their home town from apocalyptic disasters.
Even by the standards of the streaming circuit’s unnecessarily long waiting times, that’s an absolutely insane timeframe with which to tell a tale that’s only going to run for a combined total of 42 episodes.
