‘Stranger Things’: Duffer Brothers Reveal Season 5 Time Jump

Stranger Things Season 4, Volume 1
Netflix

We all saw this coming. The Duffer Brothers say that when Stranger Things comes back for Season 5, there will likely be a time jump. This makes sense for the series, given its young cast has grown up right before our eyes with every season. A time jump is the best way for the final season to match up with how the Stranger Things cast looks. The creators teased this somewhat unavoidable plot detail following the release of Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 1.

Speaking with TVLine, Matt Duffer said, “I’m not sure we’re ready to say yet a start date for shooting” Season 5, “but a lot of it is pretty well mapped out.” However, that doesn’t mean the map won’t be edited.

“We learn a lot every time we make a [season],” Matt went on. “We’ve learned a lot just working with all of our new actors and the ones that we’ve worked with for a long time over this year [making Season 4], so I’m sure it’ll change a little bit from that outline.”

“The ending is the hard thing,” he noted. “That’s obviously the stressful thing. We really want to stick the landing.”

Ross Duffer added that they tried to avoid flashing forward in Season 5, but it didn’t work out.

“I’m sure we will do a time jump,” he said. “Ideally, we’d have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that. So these are all discussions we’re going to have with our writers when we start the room up.”

“Believe it or not, we’re still working on Season 4,” Ross added. “We’re trying to finish the final two episodes, they’re so massive.”

The first seven episodes of Season 4 debuted May 27 on Netflix, with the final two episodes set to come out July 1. And those episodes are massive, indeed. The Episode 8 run time will be roughly one hour and 25 minutes, and the Season 4 finale will be almost two and a half hours long.

Basically, we’re getting two Stranger Things movies next month.

Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2, Premieres, Friday, July 1, Netflix