The end of an era will soon be upon those who have a Netflix subscription. The long-awaited Stranger Things Season 5 is wrapping up this sci-fi/horror saga that began nearly a decade ago, with eight final episodes being released between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve on the 2025 TV schedule. But Matt and Ross Duffer, who created Stranger Things, are already well into reminiscing mode, and they shared one regret about the show that they needed to learn to live with going forward.
The Duffer Brothers admitted in an interview with Variety that in addition to things like the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 writers and actors strikes delaying Stranger Things Season 5’s arrival, “immersion” was also a self-imposed problem of theirs. They were insistent on directing as much of the series as possible and ended up helming 24 of the 42 episodes, including the series finale. However, this prevented them on working on other things, with Matt saying:
Part of me regrets not having been able to tell more different stories over the course of 10 years. Sometimes I wonder about that — because it ate up our entire 30s. I wish we had gotten it done a little faster, but it is what it is.
A show with as massive scale as Stranger Things was always going to be a time-intensive undertaking. These episodes are essentially mini-movies, and the Season 4 finale was even feature-length, clocking in at two hours and 22 minutes. And yet, while Matt may regret not delegating more work to others to allow for him and Ross to delve into other stories, Ross realizes that Stranger Things was a prime opportunity for them in the early years of streaming. As he put it:
But when we started, it was very early Netflix. And I don’t know how many more opportunities there are going to be to tell stories of this length on that size canvas. So whenever I have the regrets that Matt was saying, I’m excited that we were able to take advantage of this very specific period of time in the industry.
It’s no secret that Stranger Things is one of Netflix’s biggest successes, with Season 4 being the first English-language series being the first to cross 1 billion hours streamed. Keeping that in mind, Matt added that it was ultimately their decision to stick with Stranger Things for the long haul, and it was the right call:
To go this long was our choice. We could have jumped ship and done movies, and we elected not to — and I’m glad we didn’t. We finished telling this story, and luckily we weren’t too old when we started it, so we’re OK. I mean, Ridley Scott didn’t start making movies until he was in his 40s.
It’s worth noting that even after Stranger Things ends, The Duffer Brothers won’t be done with Netflix. They’re “heavily creatively involved” in the live-action Stranger Things spinoff that’s in development, and two shows from their Upside Down Pictures banner, The Boroughs and the animated Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, are both set to premiere in the first half of 2026. However, they’ve signed also signed a new deal with Paramount and are intent to work on “original stuff” rather than jump into existing IP.
That next stage of their careers kicks off when their arrangement at Netflix ends in April. Before that, Stranger Things fans can look forward to Season 5’s first four episodes premiering on November 26, followed by the next three episodes on December 25, and then the series final on December 31.
