Stranger Things season 4 has had to work around a number of delays thanks to the Covid pandemic and the sheer size of the bumper episodes, and that has led to some issues with its rapidly growing up cast. Now the Duffer Brothers have revealed that due to the obvious aging of its cast, there is going to be a time jump between seasons 4 and 5. The first seven episodes of Stranger Things’ fourth season arrived just over ten days ago and is already on the verge of becoming Netflix’s most-watched English language series ever, and with two more feature-length episodes coming on July 1.
Back when the fourth season of Stranger Things was originally announced, the Duffer Brothers had plans to film the final two seasons back to back, but of course that changed, and as it turns out, working on season 4 has been so time-consuming that the final two episodes are still being completed. Ross Duffer told TV Line:
"I'm sure we will do a time jump. Ideally, we'd have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that. So these are all discussions we're going to have with our writers when we start the room up ... Believe it or not, we're still working on Season 4. We're trying to finish the final two episodes, they're so massive."
In the end, the delays haven’t been all bad, and allowed the Duffers to work on the scripts a little longer than they probably would have, and that would have led to a more rushed and less detailed fourth season. Now the important thing for everyone concerned is making sure that the final season “sticks the landing.” In the same interview, Matt Duffer added:
“We learn a lot every time we make a [season]. We've learned a lot just working with all of our new actors and the ones that we've worked with for a long time over this year [making Season 4], so I'm sure it'll change a little bit from that outline. The ending is the hard thing. That’s obviously the stressful thing. We really want to stick the landing.”
Stranger Things Season 5 May Not Arrive Until 2024
It took a long while for season 4 to arrive in Netflix, and while it may seem that with shooting schedules now back to normal following the Covid pandemic, fans probably shouldn’t expect the final season to be rushed out. As Matt Duffer admitted, “I’m not sure we’re ready to say yet a start date for shooting, but a lot of it is pretty well mapped out.” Even if the series was to kick off filming later this summer, it would probably struggle to meet a 2023 release date deadline.
In the end, there is no one who would prefer the finale of one of the biggest fantasy horror series ever to be rushed out and ruined, and to the Duffers’ credit, it doesn’t seem likely they would be pushed into doing that in any way. As they said, after coming this far, everyone wants them to stick the landing and see Stranger Things go out on a high in season 5.