Logo text
Timed to the official “Stranger Things Day” — set for Nov. 6, the date that Will Byers first went missing in Hawkins, Indiana — Netflix rolled out the black carpet in Hollywood on Thursday in celebration of the monster hit’s fifth and final season.
Stranger Things, which is rolling out its last episodes in three parts across Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, has waited three and a half years for its big return and its stars were particularly tight-lipped at the L.A. premiere. But one thing is for sure — don’t expect Will’s traumatic streak to suddenly come to an end. Asked by The Hollywood Reporter if his character would finally get a moment of peace this season, Noah Schnapp teased, “No, no, no. I saw a YouTube comment on the trailer that said, ‘Will suffering every season — the Duffers say hold my beers.’ So don’t fret, it continues.”
Breaking with Netflix’s traditional model, the feature-length series finale episode will screen in theaters (as well as on the streamer) on Dec. 31, and creators Matt and Ross Duffer explained how that big idea came to be.
“Netflix had the idea of doing the finale separate as its own day, and we got excited about that because of the potential for this,” Matt told THR. “It never made sense to us before; we’ve had episodes screen in the theaters before, but then you have a mix of people who have seen it before and some who haven’t, so what’s cool about this is that no one will have seen the episode, and they’re going to be watching and experiencing it for the first time.”
Executive producer and director Shawn Levy — who ran back to L.A. for the premiere while currently shooting Star Wars: Starfighter with Ryan Gosling — added that the Duffer brothers are longtime “movie nerds” and “we’ve always viewed Stranger Things as an eight-hour, nine-hour movie. So with this finale, which is so cinematic, so profoundly emotional, it felt like the right moment to fulfill their dream of having a cinematic experience for audiences literally. The storytelling of that last episode in this season deserves the biggest screen you can get. So if you can’t see it in theaters, buy a bigger TV and a better sound system for your home.”
Several of the stars revealed plans to sneak into one of the finale screenings to watch alongside an audience, with Caleb McLaughlin saying, “I do want to be in the room to hear the reactions from fans, I think that would be really sick.” And he’s quite confident in how that reaction will go: “They’re going to be satisfied, they’re going to love it. There’s going to be a lot of oohs and aahs and cries and laughs and love. All of it.”
Also on the carpet, stars Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour were all smiles as they posed and laughed together, despite a viral report that broke earlier this week alleging Brown had accused Harbour of on-set bullying before shooting the show’s final season. Ross Duffer told THR of the situation, “Obviously, you understand I can’t get into personal on set matters, but I will say we’ve been doing this for 10 years with this cast, and at this point they’re family and we deeply care about them. So, you know, nothing matters more than just having a set where everyone feels safe and happy.”
Brown was also in a reflective mood, noting that her character Eleven “has taught me so much about finding your inner voice and harnessing that power; she’s taught me a lot over the years and I’m so lucky to have played her and to be here tonight.”
Tiffany Taylor contributed to this report.
