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During a taping of Happy Sad Confused, David Harbour offered some insights into the final episode of Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer’s Stranger Things 5.

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With production on the final season rolling on, series star David Harbour is sharing some behind-the-scenes insights on the table read for the final chapter of Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer‘s Stranger Things 5. Joining Josh Horowitz for a special live recording of Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast during New York Comic Con 2024 (NYCC 2024) on Thursday night, Harbour reassured any fans’ concerns out there about how the Duffers will wrap the global phenomenon after five seasons, sharing that “they land the plane” with a finale that’s “the best episode they’ve ever done.”

When it came to the table read for that final episode, Harbour revealed that it was a serious kick to the “feels” for most of the cast. “The end of this [series finale] episode when we were reading it – just us reading it – about halfway through, people started crying. Then about the last 20 minutes, it was just uncontrollably crying, waves of different people. Noah Schnapp being my favorite,” Harbour added. “I think part of that also is the fact that these kids, it was their childhood. It’s 10 years later, and we examine that idea, and it’s so well done and so beautiful… It’s such a great episode, and it’s such a great season. You guys will love it.”

Stranger Things 5 “Like Season One on Steroids”

During an interview with The Guardian, Ross & Matt discuss the pressures of ending the series in a way that works creatively and satisfies the audience’s expectations and how this final run with these characters will feel “like season one on steroids.”

“The nine hours that precede the ending can be amazing. But if you stumble at that one-yard line, people will never forgive you for that. And they’ll forget the previous nine hours of awesomeness! So it’s amazing what they will forgive if you score a touchdown at the end,” Matt Duffer explained when discussing their feelings on how series finales are viewed. “Endings of shows are like opening a restaurant in terms of the success-failure rate – there’s an 80% failure rate, I’d say. But I think one very particular way to fail is to attempt to appease everybody.”

Matt continued, “We have a huge variety of fans that span a huge age range, and I’m sure they have all their own ideas of how they want the show to end. But we’re not consulting social media on this. Then you just hope and pray that it resonates. But it was funny: once we got there, it just felt right, and we’re going to go for it!”

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As the duo had stated previously, the universe will live on after Stranger Things 5 – but the characters that viewers have grown to love & connect with will see their stories end with the fifth season. With that much on the line, the Duffer Brothers aren’t going out quietly. “This season – it’s like season one on steroids. It’s the biggest it’s ever been in terms of scale, but it has been really fun, because everyone’s back together in Hawkins: the boys and Eleven interacting more in line with how it was in season one. And, yes, there may be spin-offs, but the story of Eleven and Dustin and Lucas and Hopper, their stories are done here. That’s it,” Matt shared – before adding, “Outside of the play. So if you want to see more of some of them, go see the play.”

And don’t forget that Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, Alex Breaux, and the amazing Linda Hamilton have joined the cast for the fifth and final season – here’s a look back at the video announcing Hamilton’s casting:

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