Newest Stranger Things Season 5 Update is Promising, But Fans Don't Hold Their Breath
Don't expect Stranger Things Season 5 to be released anytime soon.
Stranger Things Season 4 Part 2 left us hanging with a heart-wrenching cliffhanger. As our beloved characters reunited in Hawkins, an even more menacing threat cast a shadow over the town, putting the whole world's very existence at risk.
Principal photography for Season 5 was supposed to have begun in May 2023, but the WGA and SAG-AFTRA went on strike, causing a five-month halt in production. Fortunately, the WGA managed to get the AMPTP to meet their minimum demands, and Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy soon reassured fans that work on Season 5 had resumed. However, don't go holding your breath for Season 5's release.
Encouraging News
On September 27, members of the WGA East and West labor unions managed to get the major studios represented by the AMPTP to meet their core demands. Almost immediately, news surfaced that the writers had resumed work on Stranger Things Season 5. After a bit, the show's executive producer, Shawn Levy, confirmed it in an interview.
'I can say that we are hoping to start filming as soon as possible. We really need the actors’ strike resolved first. The Duffers have been hard at work since the writer strike ended,' he told The Wrap.
He says the entire Stranger Things team is eager and ready to return to work. Now, all they have to do is wait for the SAG-AFTRA strike to get sorted out.
'We are raring to go — our cast, our crew. Everyone not only needs to get back to work because we have many hundreds of crew members who have not been able to make a living since the strikes began, but we will be shooting very shortly after the actors’ strike ends.'
Long Time Before S5
But as exciting as this news is, there's still a significant hurdle that has fans concerned. And their fears are more than justified: the negotiations with the AMPTP have been put on hold, which means that the SAG-AFTRA strike probably will not be resolved until the end of 2023, according to even the most optimistic forecasts. And since much of the US supports the actors over the studios, actors have a strong incentive to keep on striking until their demands are met.
That means, even in the best-case scenario, filming of the second season can only start in early 2024. Add to that the time needed for post-production, and the best estimate for when Season 5 can see the light of day is the fall or even winter of 2025. The latter timeframe is more likely as Netflix will probably want to release its big hit closer to Christmas so that more unique users can watch it on the platform.
Source: The Wrap.