Stranger Things 5 episode runtimes have made a lot of fans angry

The length of an episode sounds trivial, but to the Stranger Things fandom, it’s anything but.

Despite the Stranger Things season five teaser sending fans wild earlier this year, the relationship between show and fandom has somewhat soured.

That tumultuous atmosphere seems set to continue thanks to Maya Hawke’s latest comments about the upcoming series.

During an interview on Podcrushed, Hawke said, “It takes a long time to write each season and a long time to shoot them. We’re making basically eight movies.”

Let's have a little refresher with the Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 trailer

Considering how season four had incredibly long episodes, perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising. Yet apparently it is.

On Twitter, fans voiced their displeasure at being faced with several “mini movies” back-to-back.

“I’m so ready for the era of TV episodes as “mini movies” to be OVER,” posted user @michaelcollado.

They continued, “The other day, my coworker told me unprompted, ‘I miss the days of episodic television’. The people are craving structure and REAL TV back!”

In another quoted post of Hawke’s commentary, a fan remarked, “Producing movies as television does no favours to either medium.”

The ire aimed at Stranger Things is so significant that some are blaming the show for “killing” the television medium.

However, there are some who welcome a movie-esque marathon in this final season of the show. One Twitter user posted, “I love it!” upon hearing the news; though their excitement is the minority response.

Gripes about episode length are all well and good, but none of us yet know if this final season is airing in 2025 as intended.

If it does, it’ll have been a decade since the first season aired; that’s an incredibly long time for a series to only produce five seasons. Maybe that’s part of the reason fans’ interest is waning...

Whatever the reasons, it looks like season five will be an endless supply of popcorn evening, followed with maybe having to skip a day of work to catch up before spoilers hit social media.