The speculation surrounding the runtimes for Season 5 of “Stranger Things” has been unfounded.
Ross Duffer, who co-created the hit Netflix series alongside his brother Matt Duffer, disclosed the duration of the first four episodes for the show’s final season via his Instagram on Monday. The Season 5 opener, titled “The Crawl,” will have a runtime of one hour and 8 minutes. Episode 2 (whose title remains partially undisclosed) will last 54 minutes, while Episode 3, named “The Turnbow Trap,” will run for one hour and 6 minutes. Episode 4, entitled “Sorcerer,” will be the longest at one hour and 23 minutes.
This announcement counters viral claims circulating on social media, which suggested all episodes of Season 5 would exceed 90 minutes in length, as well as a report from Puck News on October 6 asserting that episode runtimes would range from 90 minutes to two hours.
Previously, all episodes of “Stranger Things” had generally been around or under the one-hour mark since its debut in 2016. However, Season 4 saw a marked increase in length: Except for one episode, all others surpassed 70 minutes, with the final three episodes qualifying as feature-length, culminating in a two-hour and 22-minute finale.
Netflix plans to release Season 5 in three separate parts: The first four episodes will debut on November 26, during the Thanksgiving weekend, with “Sorcerer” acting as a mid-season finale. The subsequent three episodes will launch on Christmas Day, and the concluding episode, “The Rightside Up,” will be available on New Year’s Eve. The episodes are directed by executive producer Shawn Levy and filmmaker Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption&rdquo.), while the complete cast is returning for this final season, which includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, and Maya Hawke.
