NetflixWith exactly one month to go until Stranger Things Season 5 Part 1 lands on Netflix, creators Matt and Ross Duffer have been doing the press rounds. In their latest interview, they shut down a theory about the grand finale.
It’s been a long road to Hawkins’ final chapter, with production delays stretching the gap since Season 4 (which dropped back in May 2022, if you can believe it). That wait has only fueled fan theories, and the Duffer brothers have clearly been paying attention.
Stranger Things Season 5 will be split into three parts, with the first batch dropping in November 2025, the second in December, and the finale arriving on New Year’s Eve to close out the saga.
And close it will: the Duffers have confirmed this is the show’s last season. Expectations are sky-high, and any hint about how it ends is being dissected – including the runtime, which the creators have just dismissed.
Duffer brothers shut down Stranger Things Season 5 finale theory
Speaking with Variety, Matt Duffer said, “Every runtime I’ve seen [for the Stranger Things Season 5 finale] posted online is inaccurate.”
As said, the long gap between Seasons 4 and 5 has only fuelled speculation, with every tidbit of information being pulled apart for breadcrumbs.
This was the case when Robin star Maya Hawke appeared on Podcrushed last year and said about the fifth chapter, “We’re making, basically, eight movies.”
Her comment led to the theory that each episode will have an extra long runtime, while the finale will be three hours.
“From Maya Hawke’s comments about how each episode is ‘basically a movie,’ I was kinda thinking each episode would be 90-120 mins long, with the finale being closer to 3 hrs,” wrote one Redditor.
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Another commented, “The Duffers have said that they plan to have Episodes 1-7 be normal length, but the final episode to be very very long, like 2.5 hours long.”
Netflix“Almost 100% sure that Episodes 1-7 will be almost 2 hours and the last episode will be between 2 hours and 40 minutes and 3 hours,” added a third.
“Why? Maya Hawke (Robin) and the Duffer Brothers have already said that the episodes of this season would be bigger than the episodes of the fourth season both in terms of production and duration and they also always said that the last episode would be bigger than the last of the fourth.”
However, the Duffers’ latest comments suggest that these estimations are “inaccurate.” That being said, we can expect the Season 5 finale to be longer than usual, and the same goes for the Part 1 finale.
“Episode 4 and Episode 8 are like movies,” Matt added.
Duffer brothers talk new plans after Netflix
During the interview, the brothers also spoke about their move to Paramount. In August 2025, the pair signed an exclusive four-year deal with the studio that begins in April 2026, once their existing Netflix agreement expires.
NetflixUnder this pact, their production company, Upside Down Pictures, will write, produce, and direct projects across film, TV, and streaming under the Paramount umbrella.
The deal gives the Duffers more freedom to pursue theatrical titles, although they’ll still be producing series for Netflix, including the animated Stranger Things spinoff, Tales From ’85.
While they plan to make original movies for Paramount, they told Variety that they’d be open to tackling existing IP under the company umbrella “that we really respond to.”
Upside Down Pictures will also focus on TV shows with “eight-to-10 episode seasons” rather than long-running network shows for CBS.
Matt added, “I get fatigued watching 20-episode seasons. We didn’t grow up interested in any of that. We only watched movies. That’s the weird thing that we ended up in TV, because we had almost zero interest in television.”
He explained that they’d follow a similar release pattern to Stranger Things, stating, “If TV shows come out every year, it’s diminishing return. I like the buildup.”
Stranger Things Season 5 Part 1 arrives on Netflix on November 26, 2025. Until then, check out the Stranger Things characters most likely to die in the final chapter, a breakdown of the Season 5 time jump, and find out what else is coming up with our 2025 TV show release calendar.