Stranger Things fans, start sounding the alarms: you’re about to find out all the secrets of the show’s expansive world during the upcoming fifth and final season — at least as it relates to the Upside Down.
Ross Duffer revealed in an expansive new interview with Variety that the most important task in Season 5 was to explain “about what the Upside Down was.” The co-creator and showrunner of the series, a job he shares with twin Matt Duffer, added: “Every season would be like, ‘Should we talk about it?’ And we’d go, ‘No, let’s wait.’ And then finally, we’re like, ‘Well, we have to now!’”
That said, Matt also noted that he and his brother aren’t super interested in trying to "increasingly expand what could become an insanely convoluted mythology" following the final season. There is, in fact, a spinoff series in the works but because of the desire to not complicate the lore, that installment in the greater universe of the show will "live in a bit of a different world," though "there's going to be connective tissue,” according to Ross.
It seems the Duffer Brothers don’t want to make things more difficult than they need to be because they’ve found a way to make all five seasons of the show interlock like a puzzle. “It doesn’t feel like we dropped a storyline — it all connects,” Ross told the outlet.
“We do every last remaining thing we wanted to do with the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer and Vecna and the Upside Down and Hawkins and these characters,” Matt noted. “This is a complete story. It’s done.”
The creative arm behind Stranger Things has been working tirelessly for, frankly, an insane amount of time to make this show what it’s become since 2016 — and it’s clear the Duffers are focused on giving fans an ending to remember. “We’ve spent 10 years on this,” Ross explained. “We’re trying to put 100% energy in just making sure we land this plane. So no thought is going elsewhere at the moment.”
Stranger Things Season 5 will be released in three separate episode drops. The first four episodes premiere on Netflix on November 26, the next three debut on Christmas Day, and the final episode is set to be released on New Year’s Day. Ross Duffer recently confirmed the Stranger Things Season 5 episode runtimes, squashing all the rumors.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
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