The Duffer Bros. Talk About Why STRANGER THINGS Season 5 Is Split Up and Why It's "The Hardest Thing We've Ever Done"

We are just weeks away from the kickoff of the fifth and final season of the fan favorite series Stranger Things at Netflix.

The long-awaited finale will air its first four episodes on Thanksgiving, then we have to wait a month for episodes 5-7 to debut on Christmas, and the series finale hits on New Year’s Eve.

I think this holiday rollout is kind of the perfect fanfare for a show this popular and with such a huge scale, but if we thought the episodes were big before, we haven’t seen anything yet.

In a new interview with SFX Magazine, Ross Duffer talked about the decision to split the season, saying:

"I'm also excited about the first volume because, in season four, we weren't aware that it was going to get split in two. It's not Netflix's fault, it's nobody’s fault. There was the pandemic, and we ended up dividing it in two so we could get episodes out sooner.

“But this time, we knew we were going to divide it into two, so it really is in two halves. Volume One really exists as its own mega-movie. It has its own climax."

He went on to add that the 'finale' of Volume One – the fourth episode in Stranger Things season 5 – was "the hardest thing that we've ever done on a technical level.”

“Episode four was the most challenging episode we've ever made, and that includes the finale – though on an emotional level, the finale was the hardest. I don't know how many days I found myself crying, and I'm not someone who cries very often outside of watching Pixar movies."

I know this final season is going to be a doozy, but I can’t wait to see how it unfolds. This show is our family’s favorite, and we know the finale is going to make the holiday season that much more special.