“It’s totally wild,” Ross Duffer, the co-creator, shared during a Netflix preview event.
Stranger Things has a promising future, even though Hawkins, Indiana, is facing tough times.
Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of Stranger Things, took the stage in Los Angeles during a Netflix event streamed worldwide. They shared a behind-the-scenes teaser for Stranger Things 5 and confirmed that several spinoffs are in the works. They also gave the audience a sneak peek at two of their upcoming Netflix series unrelated to Stranger Things.
We spent a full year filming this season, By the end, we had captured over 650 hours of footage. So, needless to say, this is our biggest and most ambitious season yet. It’s like eight blockbuster movies. It’s pretty, pretty insane.
Ross shared with the gathered crowd of Stranger Things 5
At the same [time], we think it’s — or hope it’s — our most personal story, It was super intense and emotional to film — for us and for our actors we’ve been with for so long. And we’ve been making it together for almost 10 years now. There was a lot of crying. There was so much crying. The show means so much to all of us, and everyone put their hearts and souls into it. And we hope — and believe — that passion is going to translate to the screen.
Matt added
Stranger Things 5 is set to release this year and will start with a one-year time jump from the season 4 finale. The main cast returns, including Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Brett Gilman, Priah Ferguson, Jamie Campbell Bower, Cara Buono, and Amybeth McNulty. New faces joining the cast include Terminator star Linda Hamilton, along with Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux.
Read More: ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Is Rumored to Be Split Into 2 Parts
Season 5 will be big and epic. There’s no time for a ramp-up. It’s going to be intense from beginning to end,
Matt said
It’s also going to feel familiar, This season is the biggest it’s ever been in scale, but everyone’s back together in Hawkins, interacting the same way they were in season 1.
Ross added
Matt recognized that even though this might be the end for these main characters, “it’s not goodbye for Stranger Things.” He confirmed, “There are many more stories to tell.” He mentioned Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a stage play and prequel story that’s currently showing in London’s West End. The play will make its debut in the U.S. this March on Broadway.
There are more Stranger Things stories to tell and in the works. It’s a bit early at this point to talk about them, but we’re deeply involved in every one. It’s very important to us that anything with the Stranger Things name on it is of the highest quality and not repetitive, that it has a reason to exist and always blazes its own path. And also, it needs to basically just be awesome — or we need to think it’s awesome. And there are a lot of what we think are awesome things in the pipeline.
He explained,
The Duffers will continue working with Netflix for the foreseeable future. Through their production company, Upside Down Pictures, Matt and Ross are behind two new series set to release in 2026: The Boroughs and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.
Matt explained that The Boroughs “probably shares the most DNA with Stranger Things,” since it’s about a group of misfits fighting an otherworldly evil. However, the story takes place in a retirement community. The series stars Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman, and “a host of other screen icons.”
See More: Netflix Issues New Adults-Only Warning for ‘Stranger Things’ Ahead of Season 5
Meanwhile, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, written by Haley Z. Boston and directed by Weronika Tofilska,
follows a bride and groom in a chaotic, anxiety-filled week leading up to their wedding, It explores into the horror and dread that often comes with making a lifelong commitment to someone — something that anyone who’s ever been in a relationship can definitely relate to. We don’t want to say too much more about the story yet, but the title is accurate. Bad things do happen.
Ross shared.
Matt said both new shows “encompass what we feel is at the core of Stranger Things, and that is they’re stories about ordinary people who encounter the extraordinary.”
Source: EW