Few Stranger Things 4 Episodes Are Longer Than Films

Stranger Things Season 4 is coming out this month, and while it has one less episode than Season 3, the overall runtime is “almost twice as long,” according to co-creator Ross Duffer. He revealed this to IGN, while director Shawn Levy also confirmed that Season 4 has a few episodes that are longer than some of his films.

“I’ve released two movies in the time we’ve been making Season 4,” Levy said. “We have multiple episodes that are longer than both Free Guy and The Adam Project.”

For comparison, Free Guy is 1 hour and 55 minutes, while The Adam Project is 1 hour and 46 minutes. The Stranger Things Season 4 finale, specifically, will be more than 2 hours long, according The Wrap.

Ross Duffer also said that Season 4 is so long as a means to help its characters have “their time to shine” and to give space for more character development.

“We’ve talked about this being a very revelatory season, in that there’s a lot of stuff that we want to tell the audience about and reveal in terms of the Upside Down and what is really happening here in Hawkins,” Ross Duffer said.

Netflix is spending $30 million per episode for Stranger Things Season 4, making it one of the most expensive TV show productions in history.

Matt Duffer also said Season 4 aims to be similar to the Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back in that it is aiming for a darker setup. “We talked a lot about that and wanted to capture that tone,” he said.

Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 1 releases on May 27, 2022. The second wave of episodes releases on July 1, while a fifth and last season is coming later. Beyond that, spin-offs could follow to develop the wider Stranger Things universe.