#Has Netflix left it too lengthy for the ultimate season of Stranger Issues? – Destructoid

The primary season of Stranger Issues was launched again in 2018, and it rapidly grew to become one thing of a phenomenon. You possibly can barely transfer with out encountering some form of Stranger Issues merchandise, guide, or perhaps a musical that’s nonetheless being carried out now. 

It’s exhausting to imagine that it’s been practically 9 years since we had been first launched to Mike, Dustin, Will, Lucas, Eleven, and the remainder of the now iconic characters which might be the middle of the Stranger Issues universe. But it surely has, and we haven’t but had the ultimate fifth season, so has Netflix dropped the ball and left it too lengthy? 

Now hear me out, I’m not saying that the ultimate season goes to flop, and I’m additionally not saying this out of a dislike of the present. I’ve bought merchandise and books dotted round the home, I’ve binged each season on launch day, and I even went to the Stranger Issues Expertise whereas visiting Las Vegas in 2023. 

However due to COVID paused manufacturing of season 4 and delayed launch, and the WGA Writers Strikes in 2023 that successfully did the identical factor to season 5, by the point the ultimate season comes out, there may have been two seasons in six years. With a 12 months confirmed canonically between every season, this causes a problem for the characters and their actors. 

When the primary season got here out, the principle solid was all roughly the identical age because the characters they portrayed. Take Finn Wolfhard, who performs Mike. Throughout filming for season one, he was 12 years outdated and enjoying an equally 12-year-old character. Whereas filming season 5, he’s 21 years outdated and enjoying a 16-year-old. 

Perhaps we’d like a greater instance. It occurs on a regular basis in Hollywood, with older actors enjoying characters a lot youthful than themselves. Hell, in Bridgerton, Penelope is performed by an actress a whopping 20 years older than the character. But it surely will get extra questionable once you take characters like Steve or Erica. 

The place Stranger Issues left off in season 4, with the Upside Down seeping into Hawkins, Steve was 19 and Erica was 11. Even taking into consideration the now confirmed one-year leap between seasons 4 and 5, Joe Keery (who performs Steve) might be 32 enjoying a 20-year-old, whereas Priah Ferguson (who performs Erica) might be 19 and enjoying a 12-year-old. 

The actors have aged by three years for every of the final two one-year time jumps, leaving them wildly forward by way of age in comparison with their characters within the present. What makes this so noticeable is the truth that we aren’t being launched to them at this stage, we had been launched to their a lot youthful faces and at the moment are anticipated to imagine that they’ve by some means come out of the opposite facet of puberty whereas nonetheless within the midst of their teen years. 

Maybe I’m trying an excessive amount of into the small print, however with a present that reportedly has a funds of round $30 million per episode, the small print need to be appeared into. 

Any present that has been ongoing for nearly a decade may have constructed up a completely rabid neighborhood of die-hard followers, and regardless of what I’ve already mentioned, I rely myself amongst these followers on the subject of Stranger Issues. We’ve all been ready for the conclusion of the gang’s story since season 4 ended on such a cliffhanger again in 2022, and even when we’ve grown uninterested in the wait, we’ll nonetheless sit down on launch day and cement Stranger Issues as probably the most watched present on Netflix for a time. 

On the plus facet, we do have a window for when to count on Stranger Issues season 5, should you can name it that. On November 6, as a part of “Stranger Issues Day”, Netflix launched a teaser trailer which supplied all eight episode names, which additionally confirmed that season 5 might be coming in some unspecified time in the future in 2025:

Earlier seasons have been launched at any level between Might and October, so there’s actually no telling when season 5 will lastly be obtainable to look at on Netflix. At any time when Netflix posts about Stranger Issues on Twitter or different social media, there’s an ever-growing variety of individuals venting their frustration on the delay. Whereas it’s not the fault of the present’s writers or producers, it’s getting tiresome. 

There’s going to have to be some severe story-telling in season 5 to clarify why this group of troubled sixteen-year-olds have 5 o’clock shadows, or why Jonathan immediately appears extra like Will’s father than his brother. Or maybe we’ll simply be anticipated to miss these small particulars, and respect the truth that we lastly get to see the way it ends. 

I assume you might put the character’s speedy getting older all the way down to the stress they’ve been via during the last 5 years of their lives, and clarify it away that approach. I’m certain any of us would have greater than our fair proportion of wrinkles if we’d encountered the horrors that these guys have seen. If that’s the lore I’ve to inform myself with the intention to get via the ultimate season and see how the whole lot ends, then that’s exactly what I’ll do. 

Regardless, I’ll nonetheless be watching with everybody else when Stranger Issues season 5 involves Netflix in 2025, most likely fully forgetting my present considerations. Stranger Issues is like that, I suppose. Disbelief and immersion breaking particulars exit of the window once you’re embedded within the story of youngsters destined to save lots of the world from the demon spawn of the Upside Down.