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Tag: The Duffer Brothers

  • The ‘Stranger Things’ Brothers on Resolving Character Arcs

    The penultimate batch of Stranger Things episodes dropped over Christmas, and a lot went down in that trio. Along with big revelations about the Upside Down, audiences also got to see the characters reach some closure before the series finale.

    Specifically, Jonathan and Nancy broke up and Will came out as gay to the core cast. In a big spoiler-heavy interview with Variety, creators Matt and Ross Duffer said they wanted to ensure everyone “really resolved those tensions or conflicts” ahead of the big fight with Vecna. “If the party’s actually going to be able to defeat this great evil, they have to be all working at the best of their ability,” said Ross Duffer. “Whether those conflicts are external with others, or internal with themselves, they all have to be on the same page.”

    For Will’s scene, Matt Duffer called it the longest scene the pair worked on of the entire season. After cutting the scene in season four because there wasn’t space for it, they were “so concerned” about nailing it and ensuring it was “resonating and truthful” for Will’s actor Noah Schnapp. Duffer said he was brought to tears after reading it, and it came time to shoot, he “seemed to access something incredibly truthful. It didn’t feel like Noah was acting. I think he completely lost himself in that scene, and that take is what wound up in the show.”

    As for Nancy and Jon, one of the longer relationship threads across Stranger Things, Matt said that was also something they’d wanted to wrap up for a while. To the Duffers, the two “needed” to break up and be their own people. “They do love each other very much,” he noted, “but at the same time, there’s a very real conflict in the sense that they have gone through something very unique and challenging. Can they ever form a connection with someone that is as meaningful as this? But also, how do you grow as a person on your own? You need that independence.”

    The only character thread left hanging is Eleven’s and whether she can live without putting the world in danger. And the answer to that question will come in the final episode of Stranger Things, hitting Netflix on New Years Eve.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

    Justin Carter

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  • The 4 ‘Stranger Things’ Episodes the Duffers Suggest You Rewatch

    It’s been a long, long wait, but the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is almost here. Stranger Things season five debuts on Wednesday evening with four episodes making up the first of three parts of the show’s big finale. And, if you’re like us, you’ve been preparing for months. We’ve been recapping all four seasons of Stranger Things, going back to July. But, if you haven’t been quite as on top of things, the Duffer Brothers are here to help.

    The Duffers are the creators of Stranger Things, and in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, they have given the four key episodes they think fans should rewatch before season five. If, of course, you can’t just watch everything. “If you’re going to rewatch anything, I would definitely rewatch those early seasons because it really is about tying [everything] back to seasons one and two,” Ross Duffer said. “[Those] are the seasons we referenced the most, because we really wanted this to be circular and to come full circle. There are a lot of mysteries we set up and then intentionally did not answer in those early seasons.”

    But if you can’t watch even the first two seasons in the next 48 hours or so, here are the four episodes the Duffers recommend:

    • “Will the Wise” from Stranger Things 2, episode four
    • “The Spy,” also from Stranger Things 2, episode six
    • “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” from Stranger Things 4, episode seven
    • “The Piggyback” from Stranger Things 4, episode nine

    That last one, being the most recent episode, is the only one that we can understand without even asking. As for the others?

    “Season two is when we really started to build out the mythology and started to dive into everything, and how this was going to be an ongoing [series],” Matt Duffer said. “That’s where we started to really plant the seeds for the mythology, and I think probably that’s why that is as relevant as it is. Season four is also highly relevant—’Massacre at Hawkins Lab’ is a good one.”

    “That [episode] starts unveiling some of the Upside Down mythology and starts giving some answers, and, of course, all the stuff with Henry (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) continues to resonate throughout season five,” Ross Duffer added. “Those are some good ones to revisit.”

    If you want to rewatch those episodes, head over to Netflix and do that. You can also read our recaps for season one, season two, season three, and season four here.

    Stranger Things 5: Part One debuts at 8 p.m. ET on November 26. Part Two arrives on December 25, and the finale hits on December 31.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

    Germain Lussier

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  • The ‘Stranger Things’ Brothers Tease Their Paramount Plans

    2025 will end with the end of Stranger Things, after which creators Matt and Ross Duffer will be at Paramount. While the pair are knee deep in putting the finishing touches on their Netflix hit, they talked up what’s to come once they’re exclusive to the Mission: Impossible and Transformers studio.

    Movie-wise, the brothers intend to focus on original things, but they also told Variety they wouldn’t mind tackling a known property owned by Paramount. However, they stressed any IP they took on would have to be ones they “really responded to,” not just something that’s popular or would make a good headline. They didn’t offer more specifics in terms of criteria, but Matt brought up “botched” properties where “someone swung and missed, [and] then you have an opportunity to do it properly.”

    When they’re not tackling movies, the Duffers hope to find and foster new talent, akin to what Shawn Levy did for them by backing Stranger Things. They don’t want to get as big as Bad Robot, though, so they’ll just focus on “identifying really talented people and then just helping them get their vision made and then mostly staying out of the way.”

    As for the Duffers’ TV ventures, they intend repeat what they did with Stranger Things and make event shows in the eight-to-10 episode range. Shows with 20-episode or more seasons are “fatiguing,” said Matt, and neither brother grew up a fan of that model. But they want to continue making shows with shorter seasons and a “when it’s done” model, with Matt calling the traditional way “a diminishing return. I like the buildup.” Brother Matt also acknowleged that it’s strange the two even ended up in TV to begin with when they grew up on movies and aren’t really fans of television—but hey, look forward to the last run of Stranger Things episodes beginning November 26.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

    Justin Carter

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  • Stranger Things, Marvel Movie Halted Because Hollywood Won’t Pay Its Writers

    Stranger Things, Marvel Movie Halted Because Hollywood Won’t Pay Its Writers

    As the writer’s strike enters its second week, the effects of not having some of most important people on set around are already starting to show: two of the biggest projects currently in production—Marvel’s Blade reboot and the fifth season of Stranger Things—have been put on ice (along with loads more movies and shows I’ll get to in a minute).

    This Wacky Magical Girl Anime Is Studio Trigger-Coded To Perfection

    What’s the strike about?

    Writers are deservedly fed up with loads of stuff, from the number of exploitative short-term contracts being offered in the age of streaming to low pay to poor residuals to the threat of machine-learning.

    You can read more here

    Posting on the official Twitter account of the Stranger Things writer’s room, the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers, wrote:

    Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins. While we’re excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then — over and out. #wgastrong

    Without its writers or showrunners, production has ground to a halt. Hell yeah. Also downing tools is Marvel’s new Blade movie, which has been shut down and “will restart…production once the strike is over”.

    And those two are far from the only shows and films affected. A ton of live TV, especially late night comedy programs, have already gone dark, with The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! all having stopped filming.

    And while networks and studios will be fine for a while coasting on material that had already been written and filmed, if the strike continues and that dries up, they’ll be in trouble. And even when the strike is over they’ll still be in trouble, because production backlogs and rescheduling will be an absolute nightmare.

    Of course not every project and studio is hitting the pause button. HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon will continue filming, just without its writers, while Amazon’s second season of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power will do likewise. Disney and HBO are among companies who have also ordered writers back to work, with the latter asking them to perform “non-writing” tasks.

    The Writers Guild of America, the union calling the strike, figures that improving their member’s contracts would cost Hollywood a collective $430 million per year. There are already estimates this strike could do $2 billion worth of damage to the entertainment economy. That might seem like some easy sums, just pay these people what they’re worth, but these strikes are never about the money, they’re about control.

    Solidarity with everyone manning the picket lines, and best of luck with the coming days/weeks/months.

    Luke Plunkett

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