Duffer Brothers Spill on Stranger Things Finale Struggles

The Duffer Brothers have come clean about just how tough it was to pull together the final episode of Stranger Things’ fifth season. In the new documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things, the pair didn’t hold back about the pressure they copped from all sides while trying to wrap up the much-loved series.

“We were getting hammered constantly by production and by Netflix for episode 8,”

they admitted, describing the experience as

“the most difficult writing circumstance we’ve ever found ourselves in, not just because of the pressure to make sure the script was good, but because there was never so much noise at the same time.”

Unfinished Scripts and Mounting Pressure

Matt Duffer confessed that they started filming the finale without a finished script in hand.

“That was scary because we wanted to get it right. It was the most important script of the season.”

The pressure to deliver a satisfying ending was massive, with everyone from the production team to Netflix breathing down their necks. The brothers were determined to stick the landing, but the constant demands and unfinished pages made the process a real slog.

As the cameras rolled, the script was still being hammered out, adding to the stress. The stakes were high, and the duo knew fans had sky-high expectations for the last chapter of the series. The whole situation left them feeling like they were under the pump from every direction.

Fan Reactions and Theories

When the finale finally dropped, it didn’t exactly win over everyone. Some punters were so thrown by the ending that they started spinning theories about a secret extra episode, convinced the real conclusion was still to come. This so-called “Conformity Gate” had fans second-guessing what they’d just watched, with plenty refusing to accept the story was truly over.

The documentary also reveals that the show’s ending was tweaked to leave Eleven’s fate a bit more up in the air. This move only fuelled more speculation and debate among the fanbase, who were already divided over how things wrapped up.

Behind the Scenes of a Hit Series

One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things, which landed on Netflix on 12 January, gives viewers a peek behind the curtain at the chaos and creativity that went into the final season. The doco is packed with tidbits about the challenges faced by the cast and crew, from script rewrites to last-minute changes that kept everyone on their toes.

With all episodes now streaming, fans can revisit the series and see for themselves how the story came together in the end. For those keen to dig deeper, there are reviews and breakdowns of the finale out there, offering more insight into what went down in Hawkins’ last stand.