The latest season saw over a billion hours of streaming, performances on both West End and Broadway were completely sold out, and fans purchased 15 million Funko Pop figures.
Matt Duffer, one of the creators of the show – along with his twin brother – says they fully expected to fail. Before creating this drama, they’d only known disappointment and braced themselves for another letdown. “We were all failures. Complete failures,” he explains.
Right now, at a huge pop culture convention in Lucca, Italy, what he said seems absurd. The festival, attended by 280,000 people and featuring the 41-year-old brothers and their cast surrounded by enthusiastic fans, is just the first stop on a global press tour for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, a show that began nine years ago.
Things were very different in 2016. The creators of Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers, weren’t yet famous. They were in their thirties, trying to launch their filmmaking careers after some early projects hadn’t taken off. Many people thought the idea for Stranger Things – a story about a boy named Will who vanishes in the 1980s and a frightening monster – wouldn’t be successful. While Winona Ryder was a well-known actress, the rest of the cast was made up of relatively unknown actors, including young performers who hadn’t yet proven themselves.
“None of us had had a success,” says Matt’s brother Ross. “We were a group of misfit toys.”
The Duffer brothers, creators of Stranger Things, strongly identify with the show’s underdog characters. Born in North Carolina in 1984, around the time the series is set, they recall being movie-loving kids who were often bullied and felt like outsiders – much like the heroes they created.
Matt explains that he and his brother, Ross, were drawn to film because it allowed them to escape and experience different worlds and lives. Growing up in a small town in North Carolina, movies offered them a way to have amazing adventures they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
After struggling to succeed in film, the two creators found success with television, drawing on memories from their childhoods. Ross explains, “We both felt like we didn’t quite fit in when we were kids. It wasn’t about monsters or kidnappings, but growing up has its own challenges. It can be tough to find your place, and it can be a scary time.”
The sense of being an outsider, combined with the nostalgia for a limitless childhood and a deep appreciation for 70s and 80s artists like Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, and John Carpenter, were the core inspirations behind Stranger Things.
The show, initially called Montauk, faced a lot of rejection – the script was turned down between fifteen and twenty times. Eventually, director Shawn Levy, known for films like Night at the Museum and the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine, decided to support the creators. However, even with his backing, few people believed the series would be a success.
Matt explains that when they created the first season, they didn’t anticipate getting a second one. He adds that David Harbour was the most doubtful among them about the show’s potential success.
That’s a significant understatement. David Harbour, who’s played the tough police chief Jim Hopper from the very beginning of Stranger Things, was deeply disappointed by the show’s lack of awards recognition. He reacted by isolating himself at home, avoiding the internet, and even shaving his head.
Matt really enjoyed creating the show and felt proud of the work, but he was a little disappointed that Netflix didn’t promote it with subway advertising, as he’d hoped. He chuckled when he mentioned it.
Although it had a slow start, the first season quickly became popular through recommendations, eventually becoming a major cultural phenomenon. It spread rapidly online, gaining attention from celebrities and attracting a large audience. Before long, fans were dressing as Eleven, the character played by Millie Bobby Brown, for Halloween, collecting Demogorgon action figures, and recreating the show’s 80s style with their own clothes.
The show’s setting, the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, has become incredibly popular, appearing on merchandise worldwide. As each season of the show was released, its impact on popular culture continued to grow. A great example of this is when Kate Bush’s song “Running Up That Hill” was featured in a key moment in Stranger Things season 4, causing it to reach number one in the UK charts for the very first time.
The show’s younger actors experienced the most dramatic transformation, quickly becoming famous from relatively normal lives. Millie Bobby Brown, a British actor who was just 12 years old when filming began, became the breakout star as Eleven and is now highly sought after worldwide. Her co-stars – Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, and Sadie Sink – who played the central group of friends, have also become well-known actors in Hollywood.
According to Matt, Millie feels like Stranger Things has always been a part of her life. He explains that finishing the show is a mix of emotions for the cast – it’s liberating and thrilling, but also a little sad and frightening.
Ross says it’s really exciting to see the people they’ve worked with go on to do other films and collaborate with talented directors. He loves the feeling of discovering someone and sharing their work with a wider audience.
Matt explains that people often worry about young stars becoming difficult to handle, but that wasn’t his experience. He doesn’t see himself as a father figure to the actors, but rather as an older brother, which actually makes him feel younger.
Although they weren’t youngsters themselves, the creators of Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers, were only 32 when the show first came out. It’s remarkable to think that relatively unknown writers and directors were entrusted with such a large and important project.
Thinking back to the first season, it’s kind of charming and simple compared to how big things are now, but honestly, at the time it felt like a huge deal to pull off. It really did!
Matt admits they’ve improved a lot with the visual effects. “Looking back at season one now, it really makes me cringe,” he says. “It just doesn’t look as good.”
“We also had a lot less money,” interjects Ross.
Matt admits they were figuring things out as they went along. They certainly didn’t anticipate it would take a decade! While they’ve occasionally had to pass on other projects, they’re happy they stuck with this one and completed the story.
The fifth season of Stranger Things will conclude the show’s story. When it returns, Hawkins has drastically changed – it’s under quarantine after Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) caused major damage in the last season. A military group is also experimenting with the Upside Down, the alternate dimension that’s been bleeding into our world since the beginning. Now, it’s up to the heroes to find Vecna and save Hawkins.
Matt explains they always ran out of time or room to cover everything they wanted to each season. They kept postponing certain topics, hoping to address them later, but they no longer had that option.
Ross explains that the main question they wanted to address was, ‘What exactly is the Upside Down?’
This week, the first four episodes will be released, with three more coming out on Boxing Day. The extra-long final episode is even playing in some American movie theaters, and it will be available on Netflix on New Year’s Eve. According to Matt, this season is the most ambitious yet. He hopes viewers will find it entertaining, thrilling, and frightening – everything they love about the show.
The creators of Stranger Things, the Duffers, are masters of keeping things under wraps. They avoid giving away any clues about the plot, who might die, or even details about the spin-off series fans have been hoping for. However, with the success of the prequel play, ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow,’ in London and New York, excitement is building for future stories in the Stranger Things universe.
Ross says they’ve been thinking about a live-action spin-off of Stranger Things for a few years, but they only recently had the resources to start developing it. This new show will expand the Stranger Things universe, but it won’t follow the same characters or take place in Hawkins. They’re aiming to wrap up the original story with the current season and are creating something entirely new, while still staying within the established world.
Honestly, when I watched it, “Stranger Things” immediately came to mind. The creators told me they’re holding off on really diving into the spin-off until after “Stranger Things” Season 5 drops, but they’re super enthusiastic about it, and so am I!
However, achieving success can sometimes be just as challenging as experiencing failure. Matt reflects on earlier days, saying, “We enjoyed being the underdogs and operating without a lot of attention.” He admits it’s been difficult adjusting to life after gaining recognition and losing that ‘underdog’ status.
Even though there are some downsides, the show’s large audience gives us the freedom to create the story we envision.
He often ends his arguments by unintentionally echoing phrases from the show Stranger Things, simply stating, “The potential benefits clearly outweigh the risks.”
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2025-11-18 04:15