‘Stranger Things’ 4 Volume 2 Finale Is ‘a Long Movie’ With the Most VFX Ever
Fans are counting down the days until they can watch the finale of Stranger Things 4. The second half is only two episodes, but creators Matt and Ross Duffer promise an epic conclusion. Find out what to expect in the last two episodes of Stranger Things.
‘Stranger Things’ 4 is ‘basically two seasons’ according to the Duffer Brothers
As the Duffer Brothers explained to Netflix’s Tudum, the episodes in Stranger Things 4 have a much longer runtime because their writing style changed. “I was looking back at season 1, season 2, and I was like, ‘The action was a lot more spread out,'” Matt explained, adding:
“Now, it’s crammed together. We didn’t fully know how truly long the episodes were until they started to be edited, and then we went, ‘Oh.’ But I like it now.”
Matt Duffer, Tudum
Both brothers elaborated: “It’s basically two seasons.” Fans have already consumed the first “season” — the seven episodes released on May 27, 2022. The final two installments of Stranger Things 4 come out on July 1.
‘Everything goes to hell’ in the finale episode, which uses more VFX than all of season 3 combined
The last two episodes of Stranger Things 4 are the longest of the entire series. “They truly are movies, at least in terms of length,” Ross told Tudum, with Matt clarifying how episode 9 is longer than a typical movie. Ah, brothers.
Regardless, the finale of Stranger Things is essentially “a long movie.” For posterity, season 1 is eight episodes, season 2 is nine episodes, and season 3 is eight episodes.
“Automatically, that makes things structurally very different [than the previous three seasons],” Ross explained. “Especially as we’re moving into Volume 2, which is what we really call our third act. We really see Volume 1 as the first two acts of this story, and then Volume 2 is the final act.”
What’s more, the final episode of Stranger Things 4 uses more FX shots than the entirety of season 3. Ross told Empire: “There’s an hour-long chunk in the final episode that just doesn’t stop.”
He continued: “It’s the most complicated thing we’ve ever attempted to do. [It’s] all tension and dread, with a run-time that would be long even for a movie. Then — well, everything goes to hell…”
‘Stranger Things’ 4 characters will have to defeat Vecna in an untraditional way in the finale
In the past, the characters in Stranger Things faced the big bad of any given season together as a unit. But that’s not what’ll happen in the final episodes of Stranger Things 4.
“This season, not only is the villain much more dangerous than villains in the past, but they can’t … get together to solve this,” Ross told Tudum. The Duffers know there’s a “sense of dread that pervades the atmosphere” in these last episodes of Stranger Things — a dread that has the characters and fans wondering: “Maybe this isn’t going to work out this time.’”
Watch Stranger Things on Netflix.
