Stranger Things record breaking reported episode runtime gets slammed by the director

Stranger Things season five has created all kinds of buzz after its teaser trailer and episode titles came out. Season one was first released on Netflix on 15th July 2016, and soon led to the show becoming one of the most successful ones on the platform. After waiting for three years, fans will be getting to watch Stranger Things season five when it releases on November 26, 2025. However, it is only volume one that will be released on the said date. Volumes two and three will be released on Christmas and New Year's Eve this year, respectively.

Amidst all the excitement about the last battle against Vecna, episode runtimes for season five were leaked, which were initially believed to be true. These rumoured runtimes suggested that season five episodes will be hours long. However, Ross Duffer, who is one of the directors and co-creators of the show, has slammed these rumored runtimes as inaccurate.

Ross Duffer slams rumored Stranger Things season five episode runtimes as inaccurate

Had it been true, this would not have been the first time that Stranger Things had had long episodes. In season four, all episodes ran for over an hour, and the finale ran for two hours and twenty minutes. For the final season, it is expected that the episodes will run long, but not necessarily as long as the rumors claim.

The rumors suggested that season five will have episodes that will range from one hour and fifty-five minutes to two hours and forty minutes, with the finale going up to three hours. While such runtimes do sound extremely lengthy, the news (now proven to be fake) did not sound impossible.

Ross Duffer told Entertainment Weekly back in January 2025,

"By the end, we had captured over 650 hours of footage. So, needless to say, this is our biggest and most ambitious season yet. It's like eight blockbuster movies. It's pretty, pretty insane."

Matt had said in the same interview,

“Season 5 will be big and epic. There’s no time for a ramp-up. It’s going to be intense from beginning to end,"

Besides, Maya Hawke (who plays Robin in the show) said in an episode of Podcrushed,

"making, basically, eight movies,"

She also added that the episodes of the final season were going to be

"very long."

Thus, it did not seem too surprising when such a list of fake episode runtimes for season five surfaced online. Ross Duffer has, however, slammed the fake runtimes in a now-deleted Instagram story. He posted a picture of the fake list on his story along with the message,

''lol not even close to accurate''

While fans would watch the show regardless of what the runtimes are, it is a relief to know that most episodes will not exceed two or three hours. The actual runtimes for the episodes are yet to be revealed, but they are reported to be less than the rumored runtimes. But since this is the last season of Stranger Things, fans can expect the final episode to be two hours or more, since it has to conclude the story appropriately, addressing each character.

Stranger Things season five has its release scheduled on three dates: volume one arrives on Netflix on November 26, volume two on December 25, and volume three on December 31. The first four seasons of the show are streaming on Netflix.

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