It was a happy day in Hollywood when it was officially declared at midnight on November 9th that the 2023 Actors Strike was over. While details of the deal have not yet been revealed, there was talk of a “historic pay increase” and “first-ever protections for actors against artificial intelligence” which is a true victory for the industry stars. As the final season of Stranger Things was impacted by the Writers Strike, actor David Harbour says Netflix isn’t wasting any time getting season five moving forward. Dang, that was fast, wasn't it?
I was mentally prepared to say goodbye to the beloved residents of Hawkins when Stranger Things’ final season was set to film in mid-2023. Unfortunately, the WGA Strike (and later SAG-AFTRA's) put those plans on hold. Now that the SAG-AFTRA Strike has ended after 118 days, here’s some news to brighten your day. Variety reported that when David Harbour, Stranger Things’ star and newly appointed Giving Ambassador at the BoxLunch Gala, spoke on the event's red carpet about the show’s priority on Netflix’s TV schedule post-strike.
I mean, we got to film that last season of Stranger Things don’t we? I got to be down there, like, in a couple of days. We got to get going — we’re late.
The Stranger Things fan in me is jumping with joy at this news. Now, we don’t have to worry about the state of Joe Keery’s hair if the strike keeps going on any longer! David Harbour remarked what a sense of relief it was for protections for artists to come out of the agreement. That future stars will be able to make a livable wage while still honing in on their craft. As the veteran actor has worked with the young talent of Stranger Things for the past four seasons, I can understand why he'd be ecstatic by the news. I’m sure Harbour would want his youthful co-stars to get paid fairly for helping to bring one of Netflix’s best series on the map.
Based on what we know so far about season five, the writing has already been completed. So we don’t have to worry about the strike further impacting the journey of Will, Eleven, Mike, Lucas, and the rest of the characters. Other things to know is that we won’t be introduced to new characters in the final season so we can focus on the journey of the remaining OGs for their last hoorah. In particular, Will’s story for the final season will be the focus which makes sense as the spooky events of Hawkins started with Will. So naturally it will end with him too. While Season Five's episodes won’t be as long as the previous season’s, the final episode will be as long as a feature film. This is a breath of fresh air for me as we need as much closure as possible for the characters we’ve grown to love for the past eight years.
As Mike, Eleven, Will, Lucas, and Max were in high school in the last season, you may have aging concerns for Stranger Things Season Five, as the young cast is now in their early ‘20s. Director Shawn Levy says with the use of costumes, wigs, makeup, and any other tools available to them, the Stranger Things crew is confident they’ll make it work. It’s good to know they’ll be using practical effects to de-age these actors compared to CGI. We already saw the use of digital de-aging effects for the flashback scenes of It: Chapter Two since two years passed between the two horror films. This turned out to be a distracting problem with the sequel’s storytelling with characters like Finn Wolfhard’s Richie looking almost cartoon-like. Luckily, the Stranger Things team knows what they’re doing to make the young Hawkins residents look like they haven’t aged a day.
Now that the SAG-AFTRA Strike is over, David Harbour says the cast and crew of Stranger Things are on the fast track ready to work. Very soon, filming will commence to ultimately deliver audiences the final season they’ve been waiting for. With no word yet on a season five release date, this will give you plenty of time to catch up on seasons 1-4 available now on your Netflix subscription.
