Thanksgiving parades, NFL games, and New Year’s Eve countdowns could potentially see a sizable dip in viewership thanks to Netflix splitting Stranger Things Season 5 up across three, holiday-centric release dates. I’d long thought that trifurcated approach was near necessary, due to the size and scope of the final episodes, with Maya Hawke saying early on they were filming eight movies essentially. More recent rumors indicated every installment was at least 90 minutes long, and I can’t exactly say I was 1000% enthusiastic about that eventuality.
Thankfully, at least for yours truly, co-creator Ross Duffer took to Instagram to not only address those runtime reports, but also to straight up debunk them. It wasn’t an entire top-to-bottom debunking, mind you, as he only pulled back the curtain on Volume 1's four episodes. Still, it was enough to spark some relief for me and other time-restrained fans with Netflix subscriptions.
