Stranger Things creators reflect on ‘difficult circumstances’ behind the scenes while writing final season

The Duffer brothers have shed light on the chaotic and stressful process of perfecting the highly anticipated finale to their beloved Netflix series, Stranger Things.

A new Netflix documentary from Martina Radwan, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, out now, features behind-the-scenes footage of the cast, crew, and co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer as they enter their final weeks working on the show’s climactic conclusion — without a completed script.

“We were getting hammered constantly by production and by Netflix for episode eight,” Matt said in the documentary. “It was the most difficult writing circumstances we’ve ever found ourselves in, not just because there was the pressure of we had to make sure the script was good, but there’s never been so much noise at the same time.”

In one clip, Matt is seen speaking to the team on set, assuring them that despite not yet having a physical script written, the ending is “all plotted out.”

“I have to write it, and we’re just low on time,” he admitted.

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After nearly 10 years and five seasons, Stranger Things came to an end on New Year’s Eve. The two-plus-hour finale, titled “The Rightside Up,” revealed the fates of the villainous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and the heroes who took him down.

The documentary later takes viewers to the midway point of production, Day 117, just as they’re getting ready to start filming the finale episode.

“We are shooting episode 8, which isn’t completely written yet — spoiler alert! So we don’t even fully know what’s going on,” set production assistant Montana Maniscalco told the camera.

“I’ve never read 8 through, and we’re just shooting it,” Matt admitted of the final episode. “I’ve never done anything like this before. This is so weird jumping to eight... Don’t love it. Don’t love it.”

Sharing a glimpse into the final table read, actor Finn Wolfhard said to the camera, “We had a year of being on the edge of our seats. It was torture.”

In the documentary, the Duffer brothers revealed that they had just finalized the script the Wednesday prior to the final table read held Sunday, September 8, 2024.

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“It was the longest time we’ve ever spent with the writers on a single episode,” Matt said.

Stranger Things, which follows a group of school-aged friends in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, as they investigate a series of supernatural events, first debuted in 2016. Its fourth season became the most popular, briefly holding the record as Netflix’s most-watched English-language series, until it was surpassed by Wednesday.

It soon returned to the top after Volume One of its fifth and final season amassed an astounding 59.6 million views in its first week, officially beating out Wednesday’s season one, which accumulated about 56 million views in its first four days in 2022.

“The sheer number of fans who have already watched Volume 1 is staggering — the response has been more than we ever could have dreamed,” brothers Ross and Matt said in a statement.

“The show is now a decade old, and seeing the fanbase not only endure but continue to grow has been incredibly rewarding for us, the actors, and the thousands of artists who helped bring this story to life. We truly cannot thank everyone enough.”

One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 is available to stream now on Netflix.