Stranger Things Season 5: ‘Executives Were Crying’ During Pitch Meeting

November 16, 2022

Not too much is known about the highly anticipated upcoming fifth season of Stranger Things, but according to one half of the Duffer Brothers and executive producer Shawn Levy, the series is already making people tear up.

In a recent event in Los Angeles this past weekend (via The Hollywood Reporter), Matt Duffer spoke about the upcoming season, and said that not many people know how the series will end, but that he and his brother Ross did pitch the entire season to Netflix in a two-hour long meeting. According to Matt, the meeting left the executives crying, something he’d rarely seen.

“We did get our executives to cry, which I felt was a good sign that these executives were crying,” Duffer said, before joking that “The only other times I’ve seen them cry were, like, budget meetings.”

Shawn Levy then spoke, acknowledging that the meeting did take place and that, while he wouldn’t spoil anything, the upcoming Season 5 would focus heavily on the characters in the show and “taking care of these stories” as they wrap up the series.

“As a witness and having been in that two-hour pitch room and having read this first script — I’m paralyzed with fear that I’ll spoil anything, but I will say the thing about these Duffer Brothers is that even though the show has gotten so famous and the characters have gotten so iconic, and there’s so much about the 80s and the supernatural and the genre, it’s about these people, it’s about these characters,” said Levy. “Season 5 is already so clearly taking care of these stories of the characters because that’s always been the lifeblood of Stranger Things.”

Stranger Things is set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.

The series currently stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Cara Buono, and Brett Gelman.

Stranger Things Season 4 set a record for Netflix, having been viewed for more than 287 million hours during the week of May 23-30. That’s not only good enough for the top spot of the week for Netflix, but it’s also more than enough to break the record for the streaming platform’s biggest-ever premiere weekend for an English-language series, which was previously held by the second season of Bridgerton (193 million hours).