Stranger Things documentary reveals the Netflix finale started shooting without a script

A behind-the-scenes documentary shows how the Duffers agonized over Eleven’s ending and demogorgons

Some Stranger Things fans had such a hard time accepting the series was over they theorized a secret bonus episode was coming based on odd moments and inconsistencies in the series finale. Instead, we got the behind-the-scenes documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, which reveals the far more likely culprit behind those plot holes: The Duffer Brothers started shooting the final, movie-length episode without a finished script.

[Ed. note: This article contains full spoilers for Stranger Things season 5]

After spending 10 years making Stranger Things, the Duffers admit early in the documentary that they were under intense pressure to bring the series to a satisfying conclusion. Production and Netflix were constantly hammering them to deliver a final script, which they describe as their hardest writing project ever. They still didn’t have a completed script halfway through the 237-day shoot for season 5 and started shooting some scenes from the finale without it, including Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) escaping with the other kids Vecna had captured.

But that’s not all One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, here are a few more details we learned:

The Duffers weren’t sure how Eleven’s story should end

The showrunners especially agonized over Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), wavering over whether or not she would sacrifice herself by staying in the Abyss when the wormhole collapsed, and how to depict her uncertainty. They concluded that Eleven had to leave Hawkins and her friends behind because she represents magic. Similarly, the party somberly putting away their binders after a last Dungeons & Dragons session in Mike’s basement was meant to represent them putting childhood away, a transition similar to the door to Narnia closing. The Duffers explain that some other kids will find the door to the magical realm later, but the adventure is over for Mike and his friends.

The final fight against Vecna and the Mind Flayer

One Last Adventure also depicts the debate in the writers room over how to portray the final battle with Vecna in the Abyss. Matt Duffer thought the giant Mind Flayer was the coolest part of the scene, and they initially talked about everyone fighting within the monster. Finn Wolfhard asked for his character Mike to have a gun in the fight, which was represented by Mike asking his sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) for a gun and getting a flare instead. In the documentary, writer Paul Dichter says there need to be more monsters in the Abyss like demogorgons, demobats, or demodogs, pointing out that “it’s crazy if there’s nothing there,” while writer Kate Trefry worries about “demo-fatigue” after having so many of them in the midseason finale.

Trefy’s perspective seemingly won out, producing the largely empty Abyss shown in the finale. Matt Duffer also admits he and Ross have a lot of problems shooting on blue screen, which was used to create the yellow-tinted desert of the Abyss. By contrast, the massive fight in episode 4, “Sorcerer” was shot on a backlot set representing downtown Hawkins, while the scenes inside the Mind Flayer used a 130-foot set called the “pain tree” that was built in 16 weeks.

Even more from The Making of Stranger Things 5

Beyond lots of footage of the cast and crew getting emotional as they read the final script, show up to their last day of filming, or finish their last scene, the documentary has plenty of fun snippets about the making of the series:

• An early sketch of the map of the Upside Down and the Abyss had Vecna’s realm called the Shadowfell. That’s the name of the Plane of Shadows first used in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition in 2008. It’s also home of the dread vampire Strahd Von Zarovich, who the party fights in Mike’s final D&D game.
• The VFX crew went through 100 different looks for Vecna including a cloaked person, an insectoid figure with four legs, and a creature covered in spikes before settling on his viney appearance.
• The Duffers’ mother was very upset with them for killing off Bob (Sean Astin) in season 2. While the Duffers joke with the huge cast at the first table read for season 5 that they “should have killed some of you off,” they said they tried not to kill too many characters to maintain the show’s sense of fun.

---

One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 is streaming now on Netflix.