- - “Stranger Things” cast describes the intensity of shooting their biggest season yet for a year straight: 'It's a marathon'

Nick RomanoNovember 10, 2025 at 10:00 PM

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Courtesy of Netflix

Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, and Jake Connelly as Derek on 'Stranger Things 5'Key Points -

The stars of Stranger Things discuss the immense task of filming eight movie-length episodes over the course of one calendar year.

"I thought you were gonna say, 'How did you keep your sanity?' I don't know if we did, honestly," Caleb McLaughlin says.

For Millie Bobby Brown, "The stamina is truly the fact that we all love and care about it."

Finn Wolfhard and Charlie Heaton have the same descriptor for Stranger Things season 5, which the cast shot for almost the entirety of 2024.

"It's a marathon. It really is," Heaton, who plays Jonathan Byers, tells Entertainment Weekly. "It always starts with this excitement and this energy, and then there's always this middle..."

His costar, Joe Keery, playing Steve Harrington, grits his teeth and makes a grinding sound. "Yeah, crunch," Heaton continues. "It's hard."

Wolfhard, a.k.a. Mike Wheeler, adds, "When one person's down, then the rest of the cast or crew is like, 'All right, man, let's go!'"

The stars of Stranger Things gather together ahead of the Los Angeles world premiere to reflect on the gargantuan task of shooting the final season, which marks their biggest one of all.

Courtesy of Netflix

Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton, and Gaten Matarazzo on 'Stranger Things 5'

Initially delayed over the dueling Hollywood writer and actor strikes of 2023, Stranger Things began filming season 5 on Jan. 8, 2024. By July 3, series co-creator Ross Duffer shared on Instagram that they reached the halfway point, 24 weeks in. On Dec. 20, 347 days after kickoff, Netflix declared filming had finally wrapped.

Ross and his brother, Matt Duffer, told a room full of reporters at a Netflix showcase the following month (with even more watching remotely) they had "captured over 650 hours of footage," likening season 5 to "eight blockbuster movies."

The season 5 premiere runs 68 minutes in length, followed by a 54-minute second episode, 66-minute third episode, and a nearly one-and-half-hour fourth episode. All four will arrive Nov. 26 on Netflix as part of a Volume I drop, followed by the next three episodes from Volume II on Christmas Day. The series finale, which will now screen in select theaters nationwide and stream on Netflix simultaneously beginning New Year's Eve, runs around 2 hours in length.

"Season 4 was about two years [filming] because of COVID, but this one we came in knowing we're gonna film for a year. It was date to date," Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair) comments of the intense production. "I thought you were gonna say, 'How did you keep your sanity?' I don't know if we did, honestly," he adds.

Courtesy of Netflix

Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven on 'Stranger Things 5'

Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) says that prolonged schedule did get tiring, but notes they didn't always shoot consecutively, so they had breaks. Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) describes how the cast shot in blocks. Some stars would have fewer scenes than others and more time to visit home or enjoy a day off.

"The stamina is truly the fact that we all love and care about it," Brown continues. "The crew, they are so invested in bringing it to life that I think that truly drives the stamina of it all. We all care 'cause we've been here for so long. So what gets me up in the morning is I'm doing this for my 10-year-old self because I care and I love the work."

They all, however, credit the crew, who had way more intensive schedules than the actors. Wolfhard specifically calls out their camera operator, Nick Müller, who had "a camera strapped to him every day for a year," he says. "He started training the year before.... If it was a 7:30 a.m. call time, he would be in the gym at 4 in the morning."

The stars — also including Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), and Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley) — recall the experience of stepping onto the sets the crew made for season 5 and how it compared to their first season back in 2016. "We were literally the smallest set on season 1," Brown recalls.

Courtesy of Netflix

Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers on 'Stranger Things 5'

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"It was like an indie film," Schnapp adds. "And the Demogorgon in season 1 versus season 5 visual effects..."

"Unbelievable," Brown finishes, estimating about 200-plus additional people were involved in the season 5 production than their freshman run.

Wolfhard describes their Atlanta location as a museum. On season 1, they occupied a portion of the studio lot, including at least two stages. For season 5, they took over the whole thing, including the entire backlot. "Season 5 was the first time where we showed up to set and we're like, 'Holy s---! Whoa!' Like, crazy, crazy sets this year."

Ask any of the actors and they'll say what got them through this extensive filming period was each other. Dyer recalls living in close proximity to her costars, noting the "summer camp" vibe.

Hawke shares, "We all had moments where you raised your hand. We were like, 'I'm not doing that well. I need help. My spirits are struggling.' We all, this season in particular, came in to help each other move through those moments and find the bounce back."

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

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