Stranger Things 5: Shawn Levy says final season will be as big as any blockbuster movie

Last Updated on September 29, 2023

Stranger Things season 5 may be on hold under the strikes are concluded, but when the final season of the Netflix series does return, it will be bigger than ever.

While speaking with Total Film, Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy teased that the final season will be the equal of the biggest blockbuster movies. “There’s no way to be contiguous with season 4, and not, frankly, expand scale and depth,” Levy said. “It’s major, major, cinematic storytelling that happens to be called a TV series. Stranger Things 5 is as big as any of the biggest movies that we see.“

Netflix pumps some serious money into Stranger Things, so it’s easy to believe that the series will be going out with a cinematic bang. As we will likely be bidding a permanent farewell to several members of the cast, I’m sure more than a few tears will be shed. In fact, Matt Duffer said last year that they even made several Netflix executives cry during the season pitch. “[For] two hours, we pitched the full season to Netflix,” Matt said. “We did get our executives to cry, which I thought was a good sign. The only other time I’ve seen them cry is like, budget meetings.“

Ross Duffer added that wrapping up the mythology as well as concluding arcs for all the characters is quite the balancing act. “We have so many characters now, most who are still living,” Ross said. “It’s important to wrap up those arcs as a lot of these characters have been growing since Season 1. So it’s a balancing act between giving them time to complete their character arcs and also tying up these loose ends and doing our final reveals. Five, the way we see it, is kind of a culmination of all the seasons, so it’s sort of got a little bit from each. I think that what we’re trying to do is go back to the beginning a little bit, in sort of the tone of one.“

Although Stranger Things will be coming to an end with season 5, the franchise will continue with a spin-off series as well as an animated series.