Wrapping up a show like Stranger Things was never going to be easy, and according to The Duffer Bros., the pressure surrounding the Season 5 finale pushed them into completely uncharted territory.
The filmmakers have opened up about the intense creative strain they faced while writing the final episode, calling it the toughest situation they’ve ever dealt with, largely due to nonstop pressure coming from all sides.
The revelation comes from One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things, which pulls back the curtain on the making of the show’s final season. In the documentary, the brothers don’t sugarcoat just how chaotic the process became while trying to land the ending of a series that’s grown into a global phenomenon.
“We were getting hammered constantly by production and by Netflix for episode 8. It was the most difficult writing circumstance we’ve ever found ourselves in, not just because of the pressure to make sure the script was good, but because there was never so much noise at the same time.”
That noise wasn’t just these external expectations. Time was working against them too. Matt Duffer admitted the team crossed a line they’d never crossed before by rolling cameras without a finished finale script in hand.
“We went into production without having a finished script for the finale. That was scary because we wanted to get it right. It was the most important script of the season.”
For a show that built its reputation on careful planning and emotional payoff, that kind of uncertainty clearly weighed heavy. The finale ultimately sparked mixed reactions from fans, with some viewers going as far as convincing themselves the ending was a fake-out.
Online theories even claimed a secret additional episode was waiting in the wings to deliver the “real” conclusion, a moment that quickly spiraled into what fans jokingly labeled Conformity Gate.
The documentary digs deeper into those final creative decisions. Among its more surprising reveals is confirmation that the ending was adjusted to make Eleven’s fate more ambiguous, a choice that adds context to the divided response from the fanbase.
Whether viewers loved or hated how Stranger Things ended, it’s clear the final chapter came together under immense pressure. For the Duffer Bros., Season 5 was a creative trial by fire that tested them more than anything else in their careers.
