Stranger Things fans were thrilled to get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Season 5 with the sci-fi horror co-creators, the Duffer Brothers, taking centre stage in the new documentary.
Airing less than two weeks after the divisive finale, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, premiered on January 12.
Shedding a light on the chaos and stress that goes on behind the camera, Matt and Ross Duffer, didn’t hold back.
Here is everything we learned about the makings of Stranger Things Season 5.
Filming began before the script was finalised
The Netflix documentary by Martina Radwan depicted the show’s co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer as they entered their final weeks working on the show’s huge finale… without a completed script.
“We were getting hammered constantly by production and by Netflix for episode eight,” Matt said in the documentary. “It was the most difficult writing circumstances we’ve ever found ourselves in, not just because there was the pressure of we had to make sure the script was good, but there’s never been so much noise at the same time.”
In one clip, Matt is seen speaking to the team and assuring them that despite not yet having a physical script written, the ending is “all plotted out.”
They filmed the finale episode midway through
On Day 117 of filming we see the directors and cast film the finale episode.
Set production assistant, Montana Maniscalco, told the camera: “We are shooting episode 8, which isn’t completely written yet — spoiler alert! So we don’t even fully know what’s going on.”
“I’ve never read 8 through, and we’re just shooting it,” Matt admitted during the filming of the finale episode. “I’ve never done anything like this before. This is so weird jumping to eight… Don’t love it. Don’t love it.”
The script was completed less than a week before the table read
In the documentary, the Duffer brothers revealed that they only finished the script on the Wednesday before the final table read which was held on Sunday, September 8, 2024.
“It was the longest time we’ve ever spent with the writers on a single episode,” Matt said.
Sharing a glimpse into the finale table read, actor Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler on the show, said to the camera: “We had a year of being on the edge of our seats. It was torture.”
Winona Ryder and David Harbour don’t make an appearance
Despite being a huge facet of the Stranger Things world, both Winona Ryder and David Harbour don’t feature in the documentary.
According to the Martina, Winona and David were unavailable to film any interviews over the course of the year so they did not feature in the documentary.
In an interview with Variety, Martina confirmed: “We just didn’t get the time. They were busy with other projects, and so we didn’t have the time to sit down…We tried.”
Winona does not appear in the trailer for the documentary either, but there is one shot of David at the finale table read.
The ending was meant to be more violent
In the documentary, the Duffer Brothers revealed that there was originally a “midway battle” that was ultimately scrapped.
The co-creators did not divulge specifics of what (or who) that battle would have involved, but it did show that they may have felt the final fight was too easy.
Although many viewers have shown their disappointment with the finale, other comments from the Duffers within the documentary show why they made this decision.
The main reason they gave for this decision was that the audiences care more about the characters than the fighting.
Each episode can only be so long, therefore the finale was focused on the characters’ stories and what happened to each of them after this battle was won, the Duffer brothers explained.
While some may have preferred to see that midway battle or a longer fight in the final battle, in the end, the ending focused more on the characters and at the end of the day, you can’t please everyone!
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