Stranger Things Season 5 episode runtimes revealed, quashing feature-length rumours

Ross Duffer, co-creator of the critically acclaimed Netflix hit Stranger Things, has announced that the highly anticipated final season would not just consist of full-length episodes. The show's co-creators, Duffer and Matt Duffer, put an end to months of online and trade-secret speculation about significantly longer episodes by taking to Instagram on Monday to reveal the running times of Season 5's first four episodes.

Refuting rumours of all feature-length episodes

Word on the street was that the upcoming season's episodes would all exceed 90 minutes in length. This rumour took off after a Puck News article from October 6 said that episodes would be "90 minutes to two hours long." The newly disclosed facts run counter to these assertions.

Here are the confirmed running times for the first four episodes:

Episode 1, The Crawl: 1 hour and 8 minutes

Episode 2 (title partially unrevealed): 54 minutes

Episode 3, The Turnbow Trap: 1 hour and 6 minutes

Episode 4, Sorcerer: 1 hour and 23 minutes

Analysis of Season 5 episode lengths

While the series is definitely trending towards longer episodes than its original seasons—which typically aired for an hour or less—the first batch of episodes shows that the structure is not being rigidly followed by every iteration, with some running for 90 minutes or more.

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Season 4, with only one episode clocking in at less than 70 minutes, marked the beginning of the dramatic increase in episode lengths. The season finale of the fourth season spanned an extraordinary two hours and twenty-two minutes, preceded by three feature-length episodes.

Final season release schedule

The last season will be released in two parts via Netflix. The launch of the first four episodes, with Sorcerer serving as the mid-season finale, is scheduled for November 26, which happens to be the same day as the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Following the release of the first three episodes on December 25, the series finale, The Rightside Up, will be available on New Year's Eve.

Season five's episodes were directed by Frank Darabont, who is famed for his work on The Shawshank Redemption, and executive producer Shawn Levy, in addition to the Duffer Brothers. Key stars include Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, and Maya Hawke, who will be returning with Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, and Gaten Matarazzo. Now that the season's pacing and structure are more apparent, fans can eagerly await the concluding chapter of the Hawkins narrative.

FAQs:

Q: Will every episode of Stranger Things Season 5 be 90 minutes or longer?

A: No. Co-creator Ross Duffer confirmed that the final season will not exclusively feature full-length (90-minute or longer) episodes. The runtimes for the first four episodes range from 54 minutes to 1 hour and 23 minutes.

Q: What are the runtimes for the first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5?

A: The announced runtimes for the first four episodes are:

Episode 1 (The Crawl): 1 hour and 8 minutes

Episode 2 (Title partially unrevealed): 54 minutes

Episode 3 (The Turnbow Trap): 1 hour and 6 minutes

Episode 4 (Sorcerer): 1 hour and 23 minutes

Q: When does Stranger Things Season 5 premiere?

A: The final season of Stranger Things will have a split release schedule. The first four episodes are slated to premiere on November 26, coinciding with the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.