Stranger Things’ Final Season Is 8 Long Episodes Will Be Filming All Year Says Maya Hawke
Stranger Things is currently about halfway through filming its highly anticipated fifth and final season. Maya Hawke, who portrays Robin on the series, recently provided an update on the Netflix hit during her appearance on the Podcrushed podcast. Hawke, who is also promoting her role in the upcoming blockbuster Inside Out 2, where she voices the character Anxiety, shared some intriguing details about the show’s swan song.
“We’re making, basically, eight movies,” Hawke said, emphasizing the extensive scope of the supernatural drama. “The episodes are very long.” This revelation aligns with the show’s tradition of delivering cinematic-quality episodes, but it also hints at an even grander scale for the final season.
The production of Stranger Things’ eight-episode farewell season officially commenced on January 8, 2024, following delays caused by Hollywood strikes. According to Hawke, filming is expected to take about a full year. When Podcrushed cohost Penn Badgely remarked that a year is a long time, Hawke flatly affirmed, “Yes, it is.”
Hawke elaborated on the meticulous nature of the show’s production, highlighting the dedication of showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer. “They are very intense and serious about the quality of the continued writing, and so it takes a long time to write each season,” she explained. “And a long time to shoot them.”
Hawke’s description of the final episodes as “very long” and “movie”-like contrasts slightly with what the Duffer Brothers had mentioned two years ago. At that time, they had suggested that the final season might not run as long as the fourth season, which featured several 80-minute episodes followed by three episodes averaging 110 minutes. “We don’t expect Season 5 to run as long,” they had said.
However, Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy, who directed one of the final-season episodes, offered a different perspective. In an interview with Total Film magazine, Levy stated, “There’s no way to be contiguous with Season 4, and not, frankly, expand scale and depth.” He emphasized that the storytelling in Stranger Things 5 is “major, major, cinematic storytelling that happens to be called a TV series.” Levy added, “Stranger Things 5 is as big as any of the biggest movies that we see.”
Maya Hawke also shared her personal feelings about filming the final season. She admitted that the experience has been “heartbreaking.” The 25-year-old actress, who joined the show as Robin Buckley in season three, reflected on the emotional journey. “It’s already starting to be heartbreaking, you know? I mean, it’s the end of a really long journey. Longer for some of my castmates, even, than for me. So it’s really sentimental.”
Despite the emotional weight of the final season, Hawke tries to maintain a positive atmosphere on set. “We shoot for a long time, so it’s kind of reinvigorating [to bring] the joy and finding it every day and making it new. It’s a really fun thing to do,” she said.
Hawke, who is the daughter of Hollywood stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, also acknowledged the privilege of her career. She recently admitted that there are “so many people” who do not get to embark on the sort of career she has because they do not have industry connections. “Deserves… is a complicated word,” she told the Saturday Times. “There are so many people who deserve to have this kind of life who don’t, but I think I’m comfortable with not deserving it and doing it anyway. And I know that my not doing it wouldn’t help anyone.”
As Stranger Things approaches its conclusion, fans can expect a season filled with epic storytelling, emotional farewells, and the signature blend of supernatural intrigue that has made the series a global phenomenon. With the Duffer Brothers and their dedicated team of writers and producers at the helm, the final season promises to be a fitting end to the beloved series.
Source: TVLine, Entertainment Tonight, Total Film, Saturday Times
