Stranger Things Documentary Director Says She Never Saw ChatGPT Being Used To Write The Finale: ‘I Witnessed Creative Exchanges’

Though we’re getting further and further away from the release of Stranger Things’ divisive final season, fan scrutiny, speculation, and criticism only seems to be getting turned up, with one of the latest narratives being that creators the Duffer Brothers used ChatGPT to write the finale that’s got a subset of fans so mad, they’re crossing their fingers for a secret finale that will fix it all. Now the director of the documentary that inadvertently gave rise to these accusations has offered her own comment on them, and although she may have intended to dismiss any such concerns, her words are unlikely to have that effect.

The genAI accusations were born out of a shot in the One Last Adventure documentary about the making of the final season in which some fans believed they saw tabs for the chatbot open in a web browser while the Duffers were working on the script. The Hollywood Reporter interviewed documentary director Martina Radwan about the two-hour film, and naturally, the topic of these ChatGPT rumors came up. In the ensuing exchange, Radwan doesn’t confirm or deny the allegations that the Duffers used ChatGPT as a writing tool, but her comments probably won’t help quell the notion.

Interviewer Tony Maglio asks Radwan point blank if she’s aware of any ChatGPT use by the Duffers while they were writing the Stranger Things season 5 scripts, and she pretty unambiguously says “no.” The lead-up to that answer, though, is…well, let’s just read it.

Maglio: You’ve got super fans pausing and zooming in on individual frames of your documentary. One allegedly shows one of the Duffers with a ChatGPT tab open on their computer. Did they use ChatGPT in your presence, and if so, what for?

Radwan: I mean, are we even sure they had ChatGPT open?

Maglio: I’m personally not, but the internet seems sure.

Radwan: Well, there’s a lot of chatter where [social media users] are like, “We don’t really know, but we’re assuming.” But to me it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?

Maglio: I do.

Radwan: How can you possibly write a storyline with 19 characters and use ChatGPT, I don’t even understand.

Maglio: I don’t think many fans truly believe the Duffers had gen-AI write their scripts, I think it’s more of an aversion to the use of the technology in general in Hollywood.

Radwan: Again, first of all, nobody has actually proved that it was open. That’s like having your iPhone next to your computer while you’re writing a story. We just use these tools … while multitasking. So there’s a lot going on all the time, every time. What I find heartbreaking is everybody loves the show, and suddenly we need to pick it apart.

Maglio: So just to button-up the topic: You didn’t witness an unethical use of generative-AI in the writers room?

Radwan: No, of course not. I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation. People think “writers room” means people are sitting there writing. No, it’s a creative exchange. It’s story development. And, of course, you go places in your creative mind and then you come back [to the script]. I think being in the writers room is such a privilege and such a gift to be able to witness that.

Radwan asking, “Doesn’t everybody have [ChatGPT] open?” has put off a lot of people, both in and out of the Stranger Things online drama. Because, no, we don’t all have ChatGPT open. I’ve never used the thing, and neither have a lot of people. Some of us don’t need a chatbot to tell them how to write, think, or do their research for them. Radwan is still adamant that she never saw the Duffers using ChatGPT to write the script, but the implication that they were using the tech at all is still just ammunition some can use against a finale they didn’t like.

Even if the Duffer Brothers were to look into a camera and swear up and down they didn’t use ChatGPT, I don’t know that it would be enough for some of the more conspiratorial Stranger Things fans who are now taking pretty much any potshot they can at the show.