Gaten Matarazzo in Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things
The fourth season of Netflix’s sci-fi series Stranger Things is the streamer’s biggest yet — not just in scope, but in its run time. Across nine episodes, which were released in two parts on May 27 and July 1, each installment could have been its own stand-alone feature (the season-four finale clocked in at 2 hours and 30 minutes). But showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer say it was not planned that way. As they edited the season’s episodes, they realized there was simply too much story to fit into nine hourlong episodes. TV Academy voters didn’t balk at the undertaking of getting through season four — it has earned the series’ fourth Emmy nom for best drama series — and neither has its rabid fan base. The Duffer brothers spoke with THR about how they developed the season and created their most terrifying horror villain yet.