The ending of Stranger Things may have closed a decade-long chapter, but a newly released behind-the-scenes documentary has reignited controversy around the show’s polarising finale and this time with uncomfortable revelations from its creators themselves.
Released on 12 January, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 offers an unprecedented look inside the making of the fifth and final season of the Netflix hit. Among its most striking disclosures is the admission by creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer that filming began before the final episode had been fully written.
“It’s not like we don’t know what the ending is. It’s all plotted out,” Matt Duffer says in the documentary. “I have to write it, and we’re just low on time.”
The final episode, titled “The Rightside Up,” depicts the ultimate confrontation with Vecna. Yet the documentary reveals that when production started, even the team working on set lacked clarity. Production assistant Montana Maniscalco is heard saying, “We are shooting episode 8, which isn’t completely written yet — spoiler alert! So we don’t even fully know what’s going on.”
Matt Duffer’s discomfort with the situation is palpable on camera. “I’ve never read 8 through, and we’re just shooting it. I’ve never done anything like this before. This is so weird jumping to eight… Don’t love it. Don’t love it.” He later adds that they “were getting hammered by production and by Netflix for episode 8,” describing it as “the most difficult writing circumstances we’ve ever found ourselves in, not just because there was the pressure of we had to make sure the script was good, but there’s never been so much noise at the same time.” According to Matt, writing the finale “was the longest time we’ve ever spent with the writers on a single episode.”
These revelations landed amid already heightened fan dissatisfaction. After the series concluded earlier this month, social media buzzed with the so-called Conformity Gate theory, which claimed a secret additional episode was being withheld. While no such episode materialised, the documentary became a focal point for fans searching for explanations.
Director Martina Radwan addressed the speculation in an interview with BBC Newsbeat, calling the theory “a little bizarre.” “Why would they withhold that?” she asked, while acknowledging it can be “hard to say goodbye” for fans who have followed the show for ten years. Radwan said she hoped the documentary would offer closure while also demystifying the writing process.
“I think having access to the writer’s room is a real gift and a privilege,” she said. “Because I think it’s very easy to think when you write a script, you literally just sit there and write. And it’s like: ‘No, it’s really thinking about a gazillion things, how you interweave all these stories’.” Highlighting the scale of the challenge, she added, “This is a massive ensemble cast and to cover 19 character developments, it’s quite a feat and an accomplishment.”
Still, the documentary has also triggered a darker strand of backlash. Online, some viewers accused the Duffers of relying on artificial intelligence to write the finale after claiming to spot multiple ChatGPT tabs open on a computer in one scene. Posts quickly circulated, with one user writing, “The Great Duffer brother used Chatgpt to write Stranger Things Season 5. WTF man, now we know why season 5 sucked.” Another claimed, “The Duffer Brothers were literally using ChatGPT and Reddit while writing this season & particularly the finale of Stranger Things.”
Others went further, arguing the finale felt “different & incomplete,” with some comparing it unfavourably to Game of Thrones’ much-criticised ending. The episode has since drawn a surge of one-star IMDb reviews, many reportedly originating from Saudi Arabia and South Asia.
The documentary also captures creative debates in the writers’ room such as whether creatures should appear in the final battle against Vecna and the Mind Flayer, and what fate should await Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown. It traces the growth of the cast through archival audition tapes and early footage from the first season, which premiered in 2016.
“It was important to really show the longevity and also how everybody developed individually, but also with each other as a group,” Radwan said.
As criticism, speculation and emotion continue to swirl, One Last Adventure has transformed the end of Stranger Things into something more than a finale; it has become a case study in the pressures of ending a global phenomenon. Whether the documentary offers closure or deepens the divide, it has ensured that the series’ final chapter will be debated long after the Upside Down fades to black.
About Author
Leave a Reply