Stranger Things Season 5's Biggest Challenge Keeps Getting Worse

Summary

Stranger Things is entering its final season, but faces challenges such as unresolved mysteries and production delays due to strikes. Season 4 ended with a cliffhanger as the Upside Down started taking over Hawkins, leading to a long list of mysteries for season 5 to solve. The show’s young cast aging poses a problem, prompting the possibility of a time jump, which risks minimizing the impact of previous events. The production team is exploring creative ways to address this challenge.

Stranger Things is preparing for its fifth and final season, but it’s facing a big challenge that only keeps getting worse. After four successful and exciting seasons, Netflix’s Stranger Things is coming to an end with its fifth season. Stranger Things quickly became one of Netflix’s biggest and most popular TV shows after its release in 2016, thanks to its combination of horror, fantasy, and a lot of 1980s nostalgia. Although Stranger Things has solved most of its biggest mysteries, it still has a lot more to address, but season 5 is already facing a variety of challenges.

Stranger Things season 4 ended on a major cliffhanger as, despite Eleven’s efforts, along with those of the Hawkins crew, the adults in Russia, and the group in California, Vecna couldn’t be stopped. As a result, the Upside Down started taking over Hawkins in the real world, so Stranger Things season 5 has a long list of mysteries to solve. In addition to that, Stranger Things season 5 is facing a major challenge due to behind-the-scenes issues that have stopped its production from starting: its young characters aging, and the writers’ easiest solution is actually a huge risk for the series.

Stranger Things Season 5’s Possible Time Jump Is A Huge Risk

Eleven looking determined in Stranger Things season 4

Time jumps and time travel have been theorized to be used in Stranger Things since season 3 ended, given what happened in Hawkins with the Mind Flayer and with Hopper and the Russian underground lab. Stranger Things season 4 quickly debunked all theories about time travel and a time jump, but season 5 might use the latter. Stranger Things season 5 was supposed to start filming in May 2023 but was put on hold due to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. Although writing for season 5 was resumed following the end of the WGA strike, filming continues to be delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

As a result of these constant delays and with no end in sight for the SAG-AFTRA strike, Stranger Things season 5 is facing the problem of its young cast aging. Given the ending of season 4, Stranger Things season 5 is expected to take place not long after the events of season 4 in order to explore the consequences of the Upside Down taking over the human world, but this might not be the case as the cast will look older than they did in season 4. The solution, then, appears to be a time jump, which was teased by the Duffer Brothers in an interview with TV Line in 2022.

The problem with a time jump in Stranger Things season 5 is that the ending of season 4 left so many unanswered questions that a time jump risks minimizing the impact of those events. A time jump can end up giving an underwhelming or insufficient explanation of what happened to Vecna, the Upside Down’s takeover, Max’s fate, and more, or giving a rushed recap of what happened between seasons, leaving more questions that won’t be answered as this is the series’ final season.

How Stranger Things Season 5 Can Address Its Main Characters Aging

A time jump seems like the easiest way to address the characters in Stranger Things growing up so fast between seasons, but there are other, more creative ways in which this can be handled. Speaking to Variety in October 2023, producer and director Shawn Levy was asked about this challenge, to which he replied that they have an “exceptional” makeup and wardrobe department, and through the use of wigs and makeup, they can bring the actors back into their characters without having to digitally de-age them. The team behind Stranger Things will have to get creative in order to properly address the actors aging without affecting their characters’ stories and the rest of the series.

Sources: TVLine, Variety.