‘Stranger Things’ Sets January Production Start For Fifth & Final Season
EXCLUSIVE: The gang is returning to Hawkins. After a delay due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, production on the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things is expected to get underway in early January, sources tell Deadline.
Things are still in flux, but multiple sources say Monday, January 8, is a target start date, with January 5 also being mentioned.
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Cast members are believed to already be in Atlanta, where Stranger Things films, for prep work, with table reads also slated for the next couple of weeks before cameras start rolling in the new year.
Stranger Things was close to starting production on Season 5 when the WGA strike began May 2.
Scripts had been completed by then, but, faced with the prospect of filming without writers on set, creators, executive producers and showrunners the Duffer Brothers opted instead to postpone production, which then was delayed further by the actors strike.
Stranger Things star David Harbour told People on November 9 that he had gotten a call about starting production immediately after SAG-AFTRA and the studios reached a tentative agreement November 8 to end the strike at midnight that day.
RELATED: David Harbour On ‘Stranger Things’ Ending: “It’s Definitely Time”
“They literally called me, I think it was 10 minutes after the SAG thing on Twitter,” he said. “The first AD is like, ‘So, get the flight for you on Monday, right? We’ll be acting in Atlanta.'”
RELATED: ‘Stranger Things’ Producer Shawn Levy Says Production Won’t Use AI To De-Age Actors In Season 5
Stranger Things‘ main “OG” cast also includes Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton.
Matt and Ross Duffer told Deadline last year that a major goal with the final season is to “stick the landing.”
“Characters are already going to be in action, they’re already going to have a goal and a drive, and I think that’s going to carve out at least a couple hours and make this season feel really different,” Matt Duffer said at the time. “I’m sure the wrap-up will be a lot longer. It’s going to be ‘Return of the King’-ish with, like, eight endings.”
RELATED: Gaten Matarazzo Talks End Of ‘Stranger Things’ & His Expectations For Dustin In The Final Season
In a September interview with Total Film magazine, executive producer/director Shawn Levy teased a big spectacle.
“It’s major, major, cinematic storytelling that happens to be called a TV series,” he said. “Stranger Things 5 is as big as any of the biggest movies that we see.”
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