Fans Were Right To Think 'Stranger Things 5' Was Incomplete, and Netflix's New Doc Proves It

As the staggered releases of Stranger Things Season 5 rolled out, a growing portion of the fandom began to sense that something was off. Many felt the season was unusually disjointed with long, dialogue-heavy stretches and familiar characters behaving differently. Murray’s (Brett Gelman) dialogue devolved into “butter my biscuits, snookums, here’s Santa’s sleigh,” Mike (Finn Wolfhard) lost his trademark emotional core, and Robin (Maya Hawke) spoke in film-focused monologues.

For many viewers, the season that they had waited nearly a decade for lacked the clarity expected of such a monumental finale. That dissatisfaction sent many searching for an explanation, with some creating elaborate theories like “Conformity Gate,” which argued that the season’s uneven nature was intentional as it was being shown from Vecna’s reality. That theory ultimately proved false, and in hindsight functioned largely as a coping mechanism for fans reluctant to accept the goodbye they were given. Yet the instinct behind it was not entirely misplaced; Season 5 was incomplete by design.

‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Was Still Being Written During Production

Cast of Stranger Things in a scene from the finale.

Netflix’s One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things Season 5 confirms that the final season was produced in a prolonged state of uncertainty. The Duffers always intended for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to die or, at the very least, be permanently removed from Hawkins, because she represented a kind of magic that could not remain if the other characters were to truly move on. What they did not have was a fully locked-in route for how to get there. Production began without finished scripts, including for the finale, “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up.” Ross Duffer openly describes in the documentary how daunting that was, explaining that they wanted to get it right because it was the most important script of the season. Behind-the-scenes footage shows the writers’ room actively juggling unresolved plot threads, such as whether Demogorgons would be present in the final battle, while production logistics forced filming to continue. Matt Duffer describes the process as “laying down the tracks as the train is going,” which summarizes why the season often felt uneven to watch.

The documentary also highlights the ambitious scale and unprecedented pressure surrounding the production. Season 5 took 237 days to film, required 6,725 setups, and generated roughly 630 hours of footage. Director Martina Radwan offers an unusually candid look at all the moving parts involved in making Stranger Things 5, and deliberately includes moments of failure alongside triumph. Notably, Shawn Levy discusses his disappointment while directing the infamous “goop” scene with Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer), after the liquid proved less dense on set than it had been in testing. Radwan also features that Netflix itself was becoming increasingly impatient with how long scripts were taking to finalize.

The Duffers acknowledged that there had never been so much noise surrounding the series. As a result, they spent more time than ever in the writers’ room trying to meet expectations while still surprising the audience. “I don’t know how to play this,” Matt Duffer says in one scene, explaining that the longer a show runs, the more storylines and character arcs need to be tied up, and the more terrifying the ending becomes. He notes that audiences often discard an entire series if the finale falters, and they did not want that to happen with Stranger Things. Hearing the Duffers’ discuss the insurmountable pressure to deliver makes the disjointed feeling many experienced while watching Season 5 easier to understand. The season was created with the destination and Eleven’s ending known, but the path was still being discovered under immense scrutiny.

Conversation, Rather Than Scripts, Shaped the ‘Stranger Things’ Finale

Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers films the Hawkins High graduation on 'Stranger Things.' — Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers films the Hawkins High graduation on ‘Stranger Things.’

The absence of a locked-in route shaped not only how Season 5’s scripts were developed, but how the show was physically made. Creative decisions were driven by conversation rather than written direction. The documentary shows the Duffers meeting with crew members in the Hawkins High classrooms, talking through their broad ideas for the finale and introducing key elements of Upside Down lore surprisingly late in the process. This approach created particular challenges for practical and VFX teams tasked with bringing vast sequences to life, including the melting walls of Hawkins Lab, the floating rocks of the Abyss, and the inside of the Mind Flayer’s rib cage. Betsy Paterson, VFX supervisor, is shown clarifying how Hawkins, the wormhole, and the Abyss are meant to visually connect but is left without concrete guidance on how these locations were meant to look or operate. The Duffers shared in the same meeting that these ideas were likely to evolve as the writing continued. The crew appear both daunted and energized by the challenge before the documentary cuts to discussions about whether “alarm bells should be ringing” over the remaining shoot days.

Sean Brennan, supervising art director, repeatedly stresses the need for clarity, stating, “We have to know exactly what is happening.” He outlines the practical considerations involved in building large-scale sets like the Pain Tree, which eventually becomes the Mind Flayer’s physical form and needs to be capable of movement. After explaining why the younger kids need to be in the desert during the episode, he admits, “Then I don’t know what the f*ck happens.” Tudor Jones, co–executive producer, states outright that they are not going to receive a final script in time and will instead have to base major creative decisions on ongoing conversations.

Despite this uncertainty, the documentary emphasizes the team’s shared determination not to fail at the finish line. The Pain Tree ultimately became a massive practical build at 130 feet long and 80 feet wide and took 16 weeks to construct while the surrounding story was still up in the air. Rather than paralyzing the production, the lack of a finished script forced close collaboration between departments, with ideas being negotiated, revised, and physically tested in real time.

Noah Schnapp as Will Byers crying and pleading with Henry in Dimension X in the Stranger Things finale

Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things 5’ Documentary Finally Answers 1 of Conformity Gate’s Biggest Questions

Wait, so it was… meant to be a barren wasteland all along?

‘Stranger Things 5’ Was Actively Influenced by the Cast During Filming

This collaborative approach also extended to the cast. Midway through production, actors are shown asking fundamental questions about the storyline and lore, including Sadie Sink and Natalia Dyer clarifying what the Abyss actually was. Rather than handing over fixed explanations or rigid instructions, the Duffers can be seen frequently inviting actor’s interpretations and incorporating them into scenes. Maya Hawke asks to adjust her line delivery in the hospital laundry scene, where Robin tells Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) they will go on a date at Enzo’s if they survive the Demogorgon attack. She points out that Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and a comatose Max do not yet know that the pair are an item, suggesting that the line be whispered instead. This moment in One Last Adventure fueled more negativity online, with fans suggesting that the actor was correcting the writers’ oversight. In the documentary, however, it is presented as a natural part of the creative process where an actor contributes to their character and the writers are open to adapting the scene.

Jamie Campbell Bower is also shown discussing Vecna’s humanity with the Duffers, arguing that Henry bringing the children back to his 1950s home represents the life he could have lived had he not fallen under the Mind Flayer’s control. Bower references Patty Newby as the only person who ever truly cared for Henry and is an intentional nod to fans of Stranger Things: The First Shadow who were disappointed by her absence from the main series. The Duffers respond by expanding on the idea, suggesting that Mr. Whatsit functions as Henry’s idealized version of his father, demonstrating how character psychology was being shaped collaboratively due to a lack of a finished script.

For many viewers, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things Season 5‘s honesty has both re-framed and intensified existing frustrations. Online discussions increasingly connect the rushed and overlapping production timeline to inconsistent character arcs and a final battle that some found underwhelming. However, Season 5’s unevenness ultimately lies in a creative process that was never fully set in stone before production began. That flexibility led to narrative gaps and unresolved questions that pushed fans to imagine alternate endings, but it also resulted in a deeply collaborative conclusion to a ten-year journey. The cast and crew shaped characters, scenes, and story, making the season feel incomplete to some, but not because the writers were careless or hinting at a larger theory like Conformity Gate, but because it was being built in real time. One Last Adventure makes that reality clear, and in doing so, explains why fans were right to sense that something about the ending was unfinished.