With over 1.8 billion watched hours in the first 28 days after release, “Stranger Things” is one of the most successful Netflix series ever. But after a total of five seasons, the popular series about the fictional small town of Hawkins and the notorious dark world that lives there should come to an end in 2024.
While fans of the last season’s mystery series are looking forward to the series finale with a mixture of anticipation and sadness, main actor Joe Keery sees the upcoming end positively. Speaking to “Women’s Wear Daily”, the 31-year-old says about the end of “Stranger Things”: “It feels like it’s about time.” Even though it’s hard for him to quit and he owes his “whole career” and “all the opportunities [he] has had since” to the series, he feels the upcoming finale is a relief. He wants to use the newly gained free time to devote himself to other projects, including his music career.
Of course, he also feels a little sad, “because it was an incredible journey with great people,” as he describes. That’s why it’s complicated, says Keery. He says, “There’s a sense of relief and a sense of sadness.” That’s why his goal for the upcoming shooting is “to absorb everything as best as possible and not to take anything for granted, because it’s been an incredible journey with great people,” he enthuses and concludes with the words: “Everything has a beginning, a middle and an ending. It will be nice to see that ending too.”
Keery has portrayed the role of Steve Harrington since the first season, which premiered on Netflix in the summer of 2016. At first he played the small town bad boy, but over time he proved to be a good friend and supporter of the group in their fight against the underworld. Seven years have passed since his first appearance – a period in which the “Stranger Things” actors have largely outgrown puberty and have developed further both visually and in character. A major challenge for the creators of the series, especially given the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
The first episodes of the current fourth season were released in summer 2022. The sequel was originally slated for release later this year. However, due to the strike, the release date of the final, fifth season has been postponed to summer 2024 at the earliest. In order to be able to deal with the rapidly aging cast, the showrunners are planning to incorporate a time jump into the plot that will visually change the actors – and thus also the characters –should explain.
Producer siblings Matt and Ross Duffer told TVLine they’re almost certain there’ll be a time warp. “Ideally, we would have shot [seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there just wasn’t a practical way to do it,” the showrunners explain. However, since it is not yet clear when the strike will end, filming is still pending.
Quelle: “TVLine”, “Women’s Wear Daily”
