Stranger Things 5 Writers’ Important 2-Word Update: “Grid Complete”

With Netflix’s virtual global fan event Tudum going global this weekend for 24 hours, we’re expecting a ton of news, previews, updates, and announcements on a mess load of shows set to hit the streaming service later this year & in 2023. But with that said, we weren’t sure if Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer‘s Stranger Things would be sitting this one out. Not because we don’t want to know more about the fifth & final season or any new details on the planned spinoff. It’s just that we weren’t sure if there was a lot they could off this early into production. Well, leave it to the Stranger Things writers’ room to prove us wrong because this evening, they tweeted out an image of their dry-erase board. And what a difference a little more than a month makes, as the board has gone from blank-with-potential to being filled with the notes that will bring one of the biggest franchise’s in the world to an end (no pressure).

Here’s a look at the completed, mapped-out-episode-by-episode grid for the fifth and final season. But unless you have some insane, government-level type of imaging software, we’re pretty sure you’re not getting past the blur:

Here’s a look back at the tweet from the show’s writers from late last month showing off the Season 5 episode grid, just begging to be filled with details that will never see the light of day (unblurred) until after the series has wrapped its run (probably). Side note? Can you please consider bringing back Video Store Fridays? Just a thought…

And to think it was only the beginning of last month that we got a look at a blank dry erase board, adorned with a hand-drawn “Stranger Things 5” logo to make it all official:

“We thought Season 4 was going to be eight [episodes], and they were going to be regular length. So if you had interviewed us before four, that’s what I would’ve said. I think we’re aiming for eight again. We don’t want it to be 13 hours. We’re aiming for more like 10 hours or something,” Matt explained during an interview with Collider. “I think it’s going to be longer than Season 1 because we just have so much to wrap up, but I don’t think it’s going to be as long as Season 4.” As Ross says, much of that has to do with them not having to spend as much time building things up when the season begins. “This season, for instance, it was two hours before our characters even realized the monster was killing people in Hawkins,” he explained. “They know what the threat is now, and so that will help speed it up.” In the following highlight from an interview with Variety, the Duffer Bros drop a few more clues about what viewers can expect from the spinoff they have in mind:

So When Are They Starting Work on That “Different” Spinoff?

Ross Duffer: “There’s a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel. I think actually we’re going to start delving into that soon as we’re winding down and finishing these visual effects, Matt and I are going to start getting into it.”

Matt Duffer: “The reason we haven’t done anything is just because you don’t want to be doing it for the wrong reasons, and it was just like, ‘Is this something I would want to make regardless of it being related to Stranger Things or not?’ And definitely. Even if we took the ‘Stranger Things’ title off of it, I’m so, so excited about it. But it is not… It’s going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix.”

Netflix’s Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Brett Gelman (Murray), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), and Matthew Modine (Dr. Brenner).

Jamie Campbell Bower (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Sweeney Todd), Eduardo Franco (Booksmart, The Binge), and Joseph Quinn (Catherine the Great, Howards End) joined the cast of Stranger Things as series regulars. Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones), Sherman Augustus (Into the Badlands, Westworld), Mason Dye (Bosch, The Goldbergs), Nikola Djuricko (Genius, In The Land of Blood and Honey), and Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise, V) also joined in recurring roles. In addition, Brett Gelman‘s Murray Bauman was promoted to series regular. In addition, Amybeth McNulty (Anne with an E), Myles Truitt (Black Lightning), Regina Ting Chen (Queen of the South), and Grace Van Dien (The Village) joined the cast.