As Stranger Things prepares to conclude its epic journey in the quaint town of Hawkins, Indiana, Finn Wolfhard, who has embodied the role of Mike Wheeler since the show's inception in 2016, harbors a hope that the final season will live up to the fan's fervent expectations. The actor admitted that the cast was brimming with nervous anticipation, fearing a potential backlash akin to the highly criticized final season of Game of Thrones.
In an interview with Time, Wolfhard candidly shared, "Everyone was genuinely worried. With Game of Thrones' disappointing finale, we walked into this season with a collective thought: 'Let's hope we don't end up there.' But when we read the scripts, we knew we had something truly special."
From its inaugural season to the present, Wolfhard and his fellow cast members have grown alongside their characters as Stranger Things ascended to become one of Netflix's most celebrated sci-fi dramas. Now, as the narrative nears its climax, the final chapter promises an emotional and cinematic send-off that will leave a lasting impression.
The fifth season will be released in two parts, with Volume 1 premiering on Netflix on November 26th, followed by Volume 2 on Christmas, culminating in the grand finale scheduled for New Year's Eve. The series creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, have described this season as their most ambitious endeavor yet.
"We dedicated an entire year to filming this season," Ross Duffer shared earlier this year. "By the end, we had captured over 650 hours of footage. This is undoubtedly our biggest and most ambitious season yet. It's like eight blockbuster movies."
To further fuel the excitement, Ross Duffer recently unveiled the official runtimes for the first four episodes on Instagram, putting an end to weeks of speculative buzz that each episode would exceed 90 minutes. In a short video featuring the episode titles, he wrote, "ACTUAL runtimes [victory emoji]."
According to the post, the premiere episode titled The Crawl will run for one hour and eight minutes. The second episode's title remains under wraps, but its runtime is 54 minutes. Episode three, The Turnbow Trap, clocks in at one hour and six minutes, while episode four, Sorcerer, will be the longest so far at one hour and 23 minutes.
With these details now confirmed and the cast confident in the story's conclusion, fans are eagerly anticipating what promises to be an unforgettable farewell to Hawkins and the characters they've grown to cherish.
