Credit: Inside the MagicFinn Wolfhard knows that Stranger Things season 5, which has been promised to wrap up the massively popular Netflix show, is frustrating fans with its constant delay and months of filming. The actor can only tell them, “It’ll take however long it’s going to take.”
The final episode of Stranger Things season 4 (“Chapter Nine: The Piggyback”) was released on Netflix all the way back in July 2022, a near-eternity in the fast-paced world of streaming content and binge-watching. The final season of the show has been promised by the Duffer Brothers for close to two years now, but series lead Millie Bobby Brown says the drama series still has nine months of principal photography to get through.
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In all likelihood, there is a decent chance that Stranger Things season 5 may get delayed all the way into 2026. At least part of the issue was the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that shut down the majority of Hollywood productions for a few months in 2023; virtually every studio had its production and release schedules thrown into chaos, even as the studio heads did everything they could to prolong the strike rather than pay writers more and provide protections against AI image abuse for actors.
Now, the final season of Stranger Things is finally in production. Its stars have expressed widely differing feelings about the show ending, from Millie Bobby Brown describing it as “high school” that she implicitly can’t wait to be over with to Gaten Matarazzo worrying what losing the lifeline of a hit show could mean to David Harbour flat-out asking fans to get mad if they don’t like it.
For his part, Finn Wolfhard, who has played Mike Wheeler since the first season of the show, seems to be feeling quite Zen about it. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Wolfhard described his calm eagerness to see the show, saying, “I’m definitely not frustrated. It is what it is. You spend so much time on a show that it’s all-encompassing, and it’s something that means so much to me. It’s the thing that made my career, and it really shaped my life. So as far as the show not coming out yet, the only frustrating part is wanting to see it and having to wait.”
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In that last part, Finn Wolfhard is probably sharing the feelings of a lot of fans. He continued, saying, “I just want people to see it, and I want to be able to see it. But the rest of it? No. I’m indebted to Stranger Things, and it’ll take however long it’s going to take. There’s no way to control that, so you might as well just ride it.”
It seems that at least one star of the show is feeling pretty chill about whether or not one of the biggest shows on TV right now ever gets done.
Why is Stranger Things season 5 taking so long? Let’s hear your theories in the comments below!