‘Stranger Things’ Finale “Around” 2 Hours Long, Duffer Brothers Made Paramount Deal With Theatrical Aspirations For Original Ideas Over Studio IP

In November, audiences will be able to start watching the first batch of episodes for the fifth and final season of Netflix‘s mega-popular series “Stranger Things” as the show’s creative force, The Duffer Brothers, signed a deal with Paramount (recently mergering with David Ellison‘s Skydance Media) that is expected to see them move from the world of Netflix when their deal ends in April.

Speaking with Variety on set in July of 2024, Matt and Ross spoke on that Paramount deal and what it means for their future, as they’ll be gleefully untethered from their “crazy creative leash we have at Netflix.” Although expected to be tentatively involved with spinoffs. The outlet adds to that sentiment of distancing themselves from the show and the streaming service, “Matt says, for a wide-open future that won’t be governed by streaming algorithms or defined by their single, and singular, success.”

“I don’t want to get into the specifics of it,” Matt said of their Paramount deal. “But I will say the biggest draw to us was just to be able to do something theatrical, which is not something Netflix does.”

“I think everyone knows there’s not enough original stuff out there right now. Everything is so IP-driven,” Ross said, concerning whether they would be tapped for Paramount’s big roster of IP franchises (“Transformers,” “Star Trek” and the newly acquired “Call of Duty” to name a few) while stopping short of sharing what they want to do next. “It feels like a lightning-in-a-bottle situation,” says Matt. “Which freaks us out, because it’s like, ‘Well, can we do that again?’…But I will say the biggest draw to us was just to be able to do something theatrical, which is not something Netflix does.”

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Some of the other things mentioned in that extensive Variety profile are that the “Stranger Things” finale arriving on New Year’s Eve is expected to be “around two hours long,” the runtime you’d normally expect for a feature offering, not a TV episode (pretty damn ambitious if you ask us).

When it comes to that secretive “Stranger Things” spinoff, the pair will be “heavily creatively involved,” Ross says. “But we’ll, hopefully, be writing and directing something new in the meantime, helping shepherd it along.”

What does Netflix look like post-“Stranger Things”? That’s quite a question, as the show, an homage to all things genre from the 1980s, was a pillar of the streaming service’s original TV offerings, gathering MASSIVE viewership numbers that led to subsequent budget increases with each season alongside a steady stream of lucrative merchandise (comic books, toys, etc). Despite spinoffs in the works, it feels like the end of an era for Netflix, as the show debuted all the way back in 2016, so that is nearly ten years’ worth of hype for its grand finale.

It feels like the sky’s the limit for the Duffer Brothers. A good example of what could happen is from their pal Shawn Levy, who directs and executive produces the show. Who had some rather big successes since the show launched, linking up with Ryan Reynolds for “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project” as that working relationship directly into the billion-dollar MCU flick “Deadpool & Wolverine” and Disney would go on to hire Levy to helm “Star Wars: Starfighter” with the other Canadian Ryan, Ryan Gosling, in a lead role.

“Stranger Things” returns to Netflix on November 26 with Volume 1 (episodes 1-4), Volume 2 arrives on Christmas (5-7), and as mentioned above, the two-hour finale drops on New Year’s Eve.