Stranger Things Cast Addresses Game of Thrones Comparisons: Can the Finale Stick the Landing?

Stranger Things is about to take its final bow, and the people making it clearly know how high the bar is. The cast is trying to reassure fans, the Duffers are swatting down rumors, and we actually have some real info about the first episode runtimes. Oh, and the spin-off talk? It just got a lot more interesting than 'more Hawkins'. Here is where things stand.

Finale jitters, but not a Game of Thrones situation

Finn Wolfhard (Mike) told TIME that the cast felt the same dread a lot of us do when a beloved show heads into its last season — especially after watching how Game of Thrones went out. For context: Thrones wrapped with a shortened, six-episode final season that took endless heat and is still dragging around that 'worst finale ever' reputation.

"I think everyone was pretty worried, honestly. The way that Game of Thrones got torn to shreds in that final season, we're all walking into this going, 'We hope to not have that kind of thing happen.' But then we read the scripts. We knew that it was something special."

That is about as direct a 'put the pitchforks down' as you are going to get without showing footage.

About those finale theories and runaway runtime rumors

With a few months to go, fan theories have been multiplying like demobats. The Duffers say none of the viral ones you have seen are the real thing, and specifically called out the wild runtime guesses. If you saw posts claiming a three-hour finale, Matt Duffer told Variety: "Every runtime I've seen [for the Stranger Things Season 5 finale] posted online is inaccurate."

Ross Duffer even shared actual clocks for the first chunk of episodes on Instagram — which is a surprisingly concrete update this far out. Here is what he showed for Episodes 1–4:

• Episode 1, 'The Crawl' — 1h 08m
• Episode 2, 'The Vanishing of...' — 54m
• Episode 3, 'The Turnbow Trap' — 1h 06m
• Episode 4, 'Sorcerer' — 1h 23m

So yes, chunky episodes — but the 'feature-length finale' chatter floating around right now is not coming from the creators.

The spin-off: not a copy-paste, and Finn kind of cracked it

We have all heard that a Stranger Things spin-off has been in the works in some form. Finn Wolfhard tossed out his own vision to Variety, comparing what he has heard to the feel of David Lynch's Twin Peaks: more anthology than sequel, different tones and locations, same broader universe, and tied together by the Upside Down. The idea, as he put it, would skip Hawkins entirely, steer clear of the original main cast, and explore the footprint of those shadowy labs globally — if there was one in Hawkins, why not in Russia and elsewhere?

He also stressed nothing is official yet, just ideas being toyed with in case Netflix wants them. Then Ross Duffer told Variety that Finn, of all people, actually guessed what the real spin-off is. Nobody at Netflix, no producers, no directors, no other actors had it pinned — and Finn just... figured it out. That is a pretty fun wrinkle for a show famous for its secrets.

More Hawkins-adjacent content

Beyond the mystery spin-off, an animated series called 'Stranger Things: Tales From '85' is also on the way. Netflix is clearly building out the universe; we will see how far they push it once the main story wraps.

Release plan: the final season is dropping in three parts

Season 5 will roll out in chunks:

Part 1 lands November 26, 2025, Part 2 arrives on Christmas Day 2025, and Part 3 closes it out on New Year's Eve 2025. Unusual, sure — but if the scripts are as strong as the cast is saying, the staggered drop might actually make the wait more fun instead of more agonizing.