Stranger Things has, in a way, done exactly what Netflix wanted it to do with its final season, which is to get everyone talking about the show. Two weeks since Season 5 came to a divisive conclusion, there are many fans that still have not accepted that the finale they saw on December 31, 2025, was actually the way the story concludes. The release of a new documentary about the making of the season has now added more fuel to the fire by revealing some of the alternate ways the series could have ended.
The two-hour-plus documentary takes a deep dive into the creation of one of the most important seasons of any Netflix series. After building up to its finale over almost a decade, bringing the story of the residents of Hawkins, Indiana, to a close was always going to be a tough ask and, for some, the Duffer brothers failed to deliver. However, in opening up the process of making Season 5, Netflix had given disenchanted fans even more reason to complain about the way the show ended.
At one point in the documentary, a writers’ board shows notes about the finale of the series, including concepts that ended up being discarded in favor of the ending that played out on screen. This included a scenario where Hopper (David Harbour) was “aware” that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) fakes her death, and an alternate ending where Eleven was known to be “gone, but not dead.” You can see the details in the post shared on X below.
‘Stranger Things’ Finale Has Been One of the Biggest Events on Netflix
Stranger Things Season 5 was released in a three-part staggered drop, which saw four episodes landing in November, three more on Christmas Day, and the series finale arriving on New Year’s Eve.
Season 5 Part 1 brought with it a huge surge in viewership, with 59.6 million views being logged in the final week of November and a further 23.6 million views the following week. At the same time, all four previous seasons jumped back into the Top10, drawing in upwards of 5 million views each throughout the last two months of 2025.
The second part of Season 5 seemed to have a more muted response, with 34 million viewing the new three episodes between December 25 and 28, with 31 million then tuning in the following week, which also incorporated the debut of the final episode. By the following week, viewing volumes had dipped to just under 10 million.
The fact that the first part of the season immediately drew in around 80 million views, but the final four episodes only managed around 75 million suggests that Stranger Things was already losing some of its hold over viewers before the finale even aired. Despite this, Stranger Things 5 is currently the sixth most-watched series in Netflix history, and will soon overtake Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Wednesday Season 2, to end up in fourth place behind Wednesday Season 1, Adolescence, and Stranger Things 4 in respective first, second and third places on the chart.
- Release Date
-
2016 – 2025-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
Source link
Add Comment