Stranger Things finished airing its fourth season in July 2022 but not a single minute of the new season has yet been filmed. In part it is due to the strikes of Hollywood screenwriters and actors that paralyzed the industry. Locations had been found to film the scenes but brothers and creators Matt and Ross Duffer did not want to continue planning the filming. “The writing process does not stop when recording begins,” the Duffers wrote from a Twitter account.
Other series such as The Rings of Power, The House of the Dragon or American Horror Story filmed episodes arguing that they were not going to change a single comma of the texts but they defended the craftsmanship of their work, they respected the creative union. In theory they had written all the scripts for the fifth season but they argued, as did the WGA writers union, that the text is always in the process of evolution, even on the set itself. And what do we know about the final season?
It seems that the cast is already in Atlanta ready for filming. It’s time to read the scripts, to work on the characters, to make sure you have the right wardrobe before filming begins in January. According to Deadline, the key day could be Friday, January 5, when the cameras will roll the close-ups, a date that had to be delayed from last spring due to strikes.
In November, aware of the expectation generated by Netflix’s most watched English-language series, the writers wanted to drop a little candy for the most eager viewers: the first two lines of the script. And what do they let us know? That it begins in the dark, that you hear a cold wind and the sound of the trees, and that a child’s voice sings a song known to the audience. Let the betting begin on whether it will start with Kate Bush’s Running up that hill so we can live in a synthpop loop again.
The veterans are confirmed for the final season: Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Winona Ryder (Joyce), David Harbor (Hopper), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Noah Schnapp (Will), Finn Wolfhard (Mike ) and Sadie Sink (Max), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Joe Keery (Steve), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) and Maya Hawke (Robin). Also returning are Brett Gelman (Murray), Priah Ferguson (Erica), Cara Buono (Karen) and Jamie Campbell Bower, who became the unexpected villain like One, Henry Creel or Vecna.
Joseph Quinn (Eddie), who died in one of the most talked-about scenes of last year, has shown himself willing to return although, for now, everything indicates that the only thing fans can expect is a posthumous cameo, which could make sense if Keep in mind that Dustin will have to deal with the loss of his new friend in the final episodes. And who joins the cast for the farewell? None other than Linda Hamilton, the Sarah Connor of the Terminator saga started by James Cameron in 1984.
The salaries of the actors in Stranger Things are the envy of Hollywood, both because of the salaries of the main stars and because of the number of actors with six-figure salaries. For example, Ryder and Harbour, the adult actors, will earn $9.5 million for the fifth season, that is, almost $1.2 million for each of the planned episodes.
Millie Bobby Brown is estimated to be able to take an even bigger pinch per installment, the problem is that it cannot be calculated because she has a broader contract with Netflix that includes her participation in the Enola Holmes film saga (for whose sequel she earned about 10 million) or his role in The Electric State, the Russo brothers’ next project.
Their gangmates in Stranger Things, for the record, cannot complain either: Matarazzo, McLaughlin, Schnapp, Wolfhard and Sink will earn more than seven million, the equivalent of 875,000 per episode. It is striking that Sink, who joined in the second season, enjoys the status of an original member of the youngest group, although his relevance at the script level in the last season also allows us to understand this inclusion: it is also the key to not generating discrepancies. among the actors who share the most scenes together.
And finally, Dyer, Keery, Heaton and Hawke are in the third salary range with more than 6 million for the season, which is about 750,000 per episode. Here the same thing can be said about Hawke that was said about Sink: she is not a veteran but from production she is rewarded for her ability to integrate into the cast and gain the audience’s sympathy.
It is assumed that the season will have eight episodes although, as experience shows, this could change: the second and fourth seasons ultimately had nine installments (and, in the case of the last one broadcast, there was an episode that exceeded 140 minutes). The Duffer brothers will be in charge of directing and laying the groundwork for the season, but Shawn Levy, who is also an executive producer, and Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) are expected to direct at least one episode.
If Stranger Things were a normal production, the viewer could assume that it would be staged for broadcast around Halloween. However, it is not. The Duffers, thanks to the results, have earned extensive filming and the chapters require an exhaustive post-production process, which leads to a delay in their launch: the series can be seen on Netflix in 2025.
Then it will be time to resolve the apocalyptic situation of Hawkins shown at the end of the fourth season: when it was seen that, despite the efforts to combat Vecna, the alternative world of the Upside Down finds its way out in the protagonists’ town.
“I know where we end up and it’s very, very exciting,” David Harbor said in a podcast, explaining that both the sets and the scripts are “bigger” than anything they’ve done in the past. If it is true, taking into account the level of the previous season, the outcome will be quite an event.
