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‘Stranger Things’ Creators Tease Show’s Endgame and the Timetable of Future Seasons
While we’re only just getting to Season 2, the creators of Stranger Things are already thinking about the wildly popular show’s endgame. The Netflix original series seemingly popped out of nowhere when it debuted last year, surging organically (i.e. without some crazy marketing campaign or massive movie stars) to become a bona fide sensation. The 80s-set series touches on the nostalgia for the work of folks like Steven Spielberg and Stephen King while also very much exploring and creating its own story and set of rules, not to mention memorable characters.
The finale of the first season certainly teased bigger things to come, and as we eagerly anticipate Season 2’s debut this October, creators/executive producers Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, and Shawn Levy are starting to think about how long the series will run and where the story will go. This past weekend at Comic-Con, Collider’s own Steve Weintraub sat down with The Duffers and Levy for an extended conversation about all things Stranger Things, and Ross Duffer revealed that they’re in the midst of working out the ultimate arc for the series:
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Well we started having those real conversations after the first season came out, and I think us and Shawn, and we talked to Netflix—we sort of have a rough plan and I think the important thing for us was to really start to lay the groundwork this season for what would be the arc for the rest of the show. In terms of exact number of seasons we’re not sure, but I know that Matt and I wanna stick with it and just sort of finish it out. But again we don’t want to linger too long, we just want to tell the story that we want to tell and get out. Hopefully people are like, ‘I want more!’ and that’s great, but that’s sort of how we want to leave it. In terms of spinoffs, I don’t think we’ve gotten that far. Because for us it’s really just about focusing on this story and just getting it done.
The duo reiterated that they envision Stranger Things running for four to five seasons, while Ross added, “We’re gonna know more as we start really getting into breaking Season 3, which is soon.” The great news is that, while the Duffer Brothers have been inundated with big movie offers, the two want to remain the showrunners and principal creative force of the series throughout its entire run, with Levy explaining just how special that is:
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There is no succession plan. There’s no like, ‘Oh the Duffers are gonna pull back.’ It’s a tiny creative team that makes this show, it’s predominantly this twinship that makes this show, and luckily for us and fans of the show, they’re being offered movies every week but they love this thing they’ve created, they know the value of it. To get to create a world of characters that the rest of the real world embraces, you’re lucky if you get that once in a career. They’re young but they’re also smart enough to know that, that it’s a gift. It’s not like we’re grooming someone that we’re gonna hand the show off to, it’s us and we’re in it, and it’s because we still love it. We’ve got a lot of story left.
Indeed, the Duffer Brothers are intimately involved in the writing and directed of each episode, just as David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are with Game of Thrones, so luckily we can expect the same degree of creative consistency throughout the entire run of Stranger Things.As for when Season 3 might arrive, Ross noted:
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We’re not quite on the yearly cycle, as you can tell. But we’re gonna do it as fast as we can without totally burning out.
Matt followed up by explaining that, while fans get antsy about the timetable of the show’s return, they’re working literally as fast as they can:
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It’s funny that you read these comments and people are mad about the wait, and I’m like ‘I’m gonna die.’ (laughs) I can’t do anymore for my own sanity. And also it’s about quality control too. I think it makes a big difference. So we’re trying, but if anything I want more time not less time. I think it’s gonna be worth it. What is it 15 months? We’ll try to stick to that.
Indeed, given how small the creative team is on this show compared to some big network series, if fans want the quality to remain what it is, they’re gonna have to wait a bit between seasons. Which sounds like a perfectly reasonable trade-off.
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