TV
‘Stranger Things 5’ Has Already Broken a Massive Viewership Record for Netflix
How many people still care about “Stranger Things” after such a long wait between seasons? While many people on your social media feeds may have been telling you that nobody cares anymore, well, that’s just not the reality of the situation. The series is proving more popular than ever in its final season, with last week’s premiere drawing in huge numbers for Netflix.
The streamer announced, “The series returned last week with Volume 1 of its fifth and final season, touting the biggest premiere week ever for an English language show in the history of Netflix, amassing 59.6 million views and securing No. 1 on the English TV list. The new season made it into the Top 10 in all 93 countries tracked and reached No. 1 in 90 of them.”
Creators Matt & Ross Duffer said in a statement. “The sheer number of fans who have already watched Volume 1 is staggering — the response has been more than we ever could have dreamed. The show is now a decade old, and seeing the fanbase not only endure but continue to grow has been incredibly rewarding for us, the actors, and the thousands of artists who helped bring this story to life. We truly cannot thank everyone enough, and we are beyond excited to share Volume 2 — there’s so much more to come!”
Netflix goes on to report, “The series as a whole dominated half of the Top 10 — another first for any English series. All five seasons of Stranger Things made the list, with the first season at No. 3 (8.9 million views), Season 4 at No. 5 (6.1 million views), Season 2 at No. 6 (5.6 million views), and Season 3 at No. 8 (4.6 million views). Having attracted worldwide admiration, the first four seasons have now accumulated 1.2 billion combined views since their premiere.”
The next three episodes of “Stranger Things 5” will be released on Christmas Day, and The Finale arrives on Netflix and also in select theaters on New Year’s Eve, all at 5 p.m. PT.
What’s next for “Stranger Things,” beyond Season 5? An animated series titled “Stranger Things: Tales from ’85” is coming soon, and an untitled live action spinoff series is in the works.
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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