The Duffer brothers knew that this would be the last season of their hit Netflix series, probably because Netflix has no more money, so they knew that they had to make it worth it for the fans who have been waiting nearly three years for the final season. Because of that, they have made the final episodes of Stranger Things longer than your average movie. One could say almost…too long.
The first seven episodes of the final season will hit the site next week, with most of the segments clocking in around 75 minutes, or about 9 episodes of Old Enough, for reference. Episode 7 will be 98 minutes, while the final two episodes, which are set to air in July, will be much longer: Episode 8 at 85 minutes, and the series finale at 2 hours and 30 minutes. That is one minute longer than Avengers: Infinity War for those of you keeping track at home.
In an interview with The Wrap, the brothers revealed that it was inevitable for the finale to be uber long so that the series could wrap up nicely. “The more we were writing, the more we realized we need more time in order for these reveals to land, in order for these storylines to work,” Matt Duffer said. “Partway through we knew we needed to ask Netflix for nine episodes instead of eight and as we started shooting we realized, Oh these are mega-long episodes.”
Netflix already dropped the first eight minutes of the season to get fans hyped, in addition to recap videos for those of us who cannot remember anything that happened in the previous season which happened several lifetimes ago in 2019. It seems like they really needed to make up for lost time by making the final seasons multiple hours long! Good luck planning your bathroom breaks.