Duffer Brothers Begin Filming ‘Stranger Things’ Finale Without a Completed Script: Here’s What They Share About It
The documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 provides a revealing look at the production of the fifth and final season of the acclaimed Netflix series Stranger Things.
Filmmaking challenges surfaced early on, as the Duffer Brothers disclosed that they had not finalized the script before commencing filming of the series finale. "It’s not like we don’t know what the ending is. It’s all plotted out," Matt Duffer stated in the documentary. "I have to write it, and we’re just low on time."
The finale, titled “The Rightside Up,” features the climactic confrontation with Vecna. Production assistant Montana Maniscalco noted the unique circumstances surrounding the shoot: "We are shooting episode 8, which isn’t completely written yet — spoiler alert! So we don’t even fully know what’s going on."
Expressing his discomfort with the situation, Matt Duffer remarked, "I’ve never read 8 through, and we’re just shooting it. I’ve never done anything like this before. This is so weird jumping to eight… Don’t love it. Don’t love it."
The pressure from both production teams and Netflix also weighed heavily on the creators. "We were getting hammered by production and by Netflix for episode 8," Duffer explained, describing the writing process as the most demanding they had ever encountered. "It was the most difficult writing circumstances we’ve ever found ourselves in, not just because there was the pressure of we had to make sure the script was good, but there’s never been so much noise at the same time."
He added that writing the final episode for Stranger Things required an unprecedented amount of time with the writers, marking a significant moment in the series’ creative journey.
