Stranger Things season 5 episode count revealed

Even in a year filled with huge fantasy and sci-fi releases, Stranger Things 4 stood out. The fourth season of Netflix’s paranormal ’80s homage was a massive hit for the streamer, making headlines both for its ambitious story and movie-length episodes.

But all good things must come to an end. Season 5 of Stranger Things will be the show’s last. Creators Matt and Ross Duffer have promised that the final season will be a little less sprawling than season 4, on account of the characters being back together and there being a larger focus on the original cast. Now, we have a slightly better idea of what to expect.

The final season of Stranger Things will have eight episodes

The gears are starting to turn on the production for Stranger Things 5. The Twitter account for the Stranger Things writer’s room posted the image above, showing that work on the show’s final season is now in “grid stage,” where the writers will presumably plot out the overall arc of the season and how it breaks down into specific episodes. The whiteboard in the image shows eight episodes total, as opposed to season 4’s nine.

This is pretty par for the course for Stranger Things, which has fluctuated between eight and nine episodes depending on the season. But given the ballooning runtimes in season 4, many are wondering whether season 5 will have similarly enormous episodes.

“I don’t think the runtimes will be as extreme in season 5. We’re trying to return to the simplicity of the structure in season 1, with bigger scale and scope,” Matt Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. Of course, the final episode of the season is the exception; Matt teased that it will be “pretty massive,” which we’re totally fine with.

"The runtimes being as long as they were was something of a surprise to us. Ross and I have been trying to analyze how they ended up that long because the scripts aren’t even that long. We’ve realized that our writing style has changed a little bit in terms of how we space out description. I think that added to some length. Also, we had an additional plot with Hopper in Russia. It’s a pretty dense season. We weren’t sure they were that long, really, until we got into edit."

Fans were quick to note that there appears to be a double-line separating episodes 4 and 5 in that Twitter picture, which some thought could represent a time jump. The writers were quick to reply. “Not a time jump,” the wrote. “Does it mean anything?” Cheeky.

We won’t be watching Stranger Things 5 for a while. Until then, it’s always a good time for a rewatch. Season 1-4 of Stranger Things are available on Netflix.

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h/t Digital Spy