the new strange things The documentary shows the delay of the creators red i Matt Duffer they were when it came to finishing the script of the end of the series.
netflix launched the two-hour special One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 on Monday, Jan. 12, where Matt and Ross, both 41, documented their writers’ room trying to plan the script for the show’s final episode.
“The more time goes by, the more stories you have to tie up and the more character arcs you have to finish. The more expectations there are with the audience,” Matt said. “How do you meet those expectations but still surprise the audience?”
Matt and Ross They were Seenaa arguingg while the writers Caitlin Schneiderhan, Paul Dichter, Kate Trefry i Curtis Gwinn he tried to help them plot the show’s conclusion. The biggest difference was about Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and how his death would play out on screen.
How filming was underway for the first half of Season 5, Ross and Matt were caught spoiling cast members’ storylines multiple times. In order to prepare for the costumes, special effects, and set design, the crew constantly asked Ross and Matt for their thoughts on an episode they still didn’t have a script for.
“It’s not like we don’t know what the ending is. It’s all mapped out. I just have to write it. We only have a short amount of time,” Matt explained. “I used to be, like, seven days a week and I can’t do it anymore. Now I have two kids and it’s just… It’s a hard career to have with the kids.”
In another conversation from the writers’ room, Matt and Ross defended not killing off too many characters. Matt specifically argued that multiple deaths “become depressing.”
Production underway strange things it was almost halfway through when the Duffers visited the set to take the crew “through the big beats” since “there was no script yet.” Caleb McLaughlinwho played Lucas, approached Matt and Ross to ask how his “script” was going.
“This show is so big and there are so many pages to shoot that Ross and I just can’t direct everything,” Matt noted in a confessional.
Backstage, the crew talked about concerns about how they “can’t get the sets ready in time” if they don’t know what’s going on in the show. One crew member mentioned that they “won’t get a final script in time,” so they “have to base” their planning on “conversations with” the Duffer brothers.
Filming was subsequently completed on episode 4, titled “Chapter Four: Sorcerer”, which left six months in the production schedule. When asked if there was a script, a crew member confirmed that nothing had been shared yet.
“We’re going to try to get the rest of this season in our heads and figure it out,” he said as they prepared to film episode 6.
Matt and Ross had to agree to film certain finale scenes early due to weather. They weren’t thrilled with the change, saying, “We’re shooting Episode 8, which isn’t fully written yet. We don’t even know what’s going on yet. I haven’t read Episode 8 and we’re shooting it. I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m not loving it.”
According to Matt, “they were constantly getting hammered by production and by Netflix for episode 8.”
“They were the most difficult writing circumstances we’ve ever been in,” noted Ross. “Not just because there was pressure that we had to make sure the script was good, but there’s never been so much noise at once.”
Elsewhere in the document, Finn Wolfhardwho played mike, revealed they “waited a year” to get a script for the ending. Meanwhile, Matt and Ross admitted they were nervous about the reception to the finale.
“It’s terrifying because you see these shows that people love and adore and the ending falters. They just throw off the rest of the show,” Matt said, before Ross added: “You can’t leave anything hanging. You have to finish everything.”
Matt continued, “We went into production without having a finished script by the end. It was scary because we wanted to get it right. It was the biggest script of the season.”
Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, and the rest of the Stranger Things cast have evolved tremendously since the show began in 2016. The once relatively unknown actors burst into the Hollywood industry at full speed following the drama’s massive success. “I don’t think Netflix thought it would be as big as it was (…)
strange things became a pop culture phenomenon after its debut in 2016, but as the show continued, the gaps between seasons grew longer. After the series finale in December 2025, Ross and Matt received backlash for suggesting in interviews that many of the show’s final storylines were pending interpretation.
“We feel very happy with how the show ended. I think in the end, in particular, the last scene, which again, we’ve had an idea of what that scene would be like for years, and when we sat down to break season 5, it’s the first thing we broke,” Ross told The Hollywood Reporter. “Everything is building right now and making sure it works. Because we knew that no matter what we did, we could make eight hours of entertainment that people love, and then if you stick around in the last five minutes, everybody’s going to be talking about everything! So you just want to make sure you get those five minutes right, and then hopefully everything falls into place from that scene and we’re so proud of that scene. good, but it’s always nerve-wracking to put it out there for the public.
Matt beyond pointed out that the end it was “a challenge” for them.
“When you read about people reacting to the show, sometimes I feel like they’re watching very different shows. And in a way, they are, right? They’re fixated on different aspects of the show that are more important to some people than others. It gets confusing. So you can’t really work to please (everyone), because who do you choose to please?” he shared “At the end of the day, you have to shut out all the noise and listen to your gut and the other writers we’ve been working with for so long, and hope that what we feel is right resonates with everyone else.”
strange things it is currently streaming on Netflix.