TV
‘Stranger Things 5’ Co-Creator and Showrunner Debunks Episode Length Rumors
The first official teaser trailer for “Stranger Things 5” arrived last week, followed soon after by social media rumors that the final season would run a tidy but daunting 19 hours long.
Don’t worry; series co-creator and showrunner Ross Duffer has officially debunked the “leaked” episode runtimes as false.
While it was highly circulated on social media that each of the final eight episodes would be feature-length, with many clocking in at two and a half hours or more, Ross Duffer shot those claims down via Instagram stories, stating that the rumored episode durations are “not even close to accurate.”
Of course, “Stranger Things” has featured robust runtimes before. The fourth season’s finale ran two hours and nineteen minutes, which only added plausibility to the circulating rumors. Especially as Duffer previously teased, “So, needless to say, this is our biggest and most ambitious season yet. It’s like eight blockbuster movies. It’s pretty, pretty insane.”
Netflix hasn’t revealed the official runtimes just yet, but we can expect the streamer and the series’ creators to keep any details about the final season close to the vest. Ross and his brother Matt Duffer, who co-created the global hit series, have been very careful to preserve the element of surprise. “Don’t worry about spoilers—this teaser pulls from every episode except 7, but it’s mostly Volume One and just barely scratches the surface,” Ross Duffer shared on Instagram after the teaser’s debut.
The first four episodes will premiere on November 26, the next three episodes on December 25, and the series finale on December 31. Each volume releases globally at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET.
In the final season, “The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding.
“As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.”
The cast includes Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Brett Gelman (Murray), Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Amybeth McNulty (Vickie), Nell Fisher (Holly Wheeler), Jake Connelly (Derek Turnbow), Alex Breaux (Lt. Akers), and Linda Hamilton (Dr. Kay).
Series creators The Duffer Brothers promise an epic final season ahead. Stay tuned.
Himesh Patel (Tenet, Don’t Look Up) will star opposite Danielle Deadwyler (The Woman in the Yard) in Ryan Coogler’s reboot of “The X-Files“, which has wrapped filming on the pilot.
Patel confirmed the news in a chat with The Direct, while reiterating that he and Deadwyler play new characters.
“I don’t want to say anything that’s going to get me disappeared. Needless to say, myself and Danielle Deadwyler are playing completely new characters, and we just wrapped on the pilot. If we get to do more… we’ll see where we go from there,” Patel said.
That last sentence is noteworthy, as Patel is reminding that Hulu has only ordered the pilot so far. A full series order has yet to be greenlit.
It’s a good reminder, considering that Hulu also ordered a pilot for the “Buffy: New Sunnydale” reboot that was filmed and delivered earlier this year, only for the streamer to send shockwaves when it opted not to move forward with the series.
As for “The X-Files” pilot, Sinners filmmaker Ryan Coogler writes and directs the pilot. Jennifer Yale (“The Copenhagen Test”) serves as showrunner.
Himesh Patel and Danielle Deadwyler play two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents who form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.
Patel and Deadwyler previously co-starred together on “Station Eleven.”
Other actors who have signed on for guest roles include Amy Madigan, Steve Buscemi, Ben Foster, Devery Jacobs, Lochlyn Munro, Tantoo Cardinal, Joel D. Montgrand, and Sofia Grace Clifton.
“The X-Files” originally ran for nine seasons between 1993 and 2002, with two additional seasons arriving in 2016 and 2018. 218 episodes were produced in total, along with two feature films: 1998’s The X-Files: Fight the Future and 2008’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
Himesh Patel in “Station Eleven”
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