Stranger Things documentary reveals Netflix’s final episode began filming without a script

A number of Stranger Things fans had a hard time accepting that the series had ended so they theorized that a secret bonus episode was coming based on the strange moments and inconsistencies at the end of the series. Instead, we get a behind-the-scenes documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5which revealed the most likely cause behind the plot hole: The Duffer Brothers began filming the film-length final episode without a finished script.

[Ed. note: This article contains full spoilers for Stranger Things season 5]

After spending 10 years in the making Stranger Things, the Duffer family admit early in the documentary that they were under intense pressure to bring the series to a satisfying conclusion. Production and Netflix constantly pressured them to produce a final script, which they described as the most difficult writing project ever. They still hadn’t finished the script in the midst of shooting 237 days for season 5 and began filming several scenes from the finale without it, including Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) escaping with the other children Vecna ​​captured.

But that’s not all One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5here are some other details we learned:

The Duffer family isn’t sure how Eleven’s story should end

The showrunners agonized over Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), wondering whether she would sacrifice herself by remaining in the Abyss when the wormhole collapsed, and how to portray her uncertainty. They conclude that Eleven must leave Hawkins and his friends because she represents magic. Likewise, the party sadly let go of its bindings after a while Dungeons & Dragons the sessions in Mike’s basement are meant to represent those leaving childhood behind, a transition akin to the door to Narnia’s closing. The Duffers explain that some other children will discover the door to the magical realm later, but Mike and his friends’ adventures are over.

Final battle against Vecna ​​and the Mind Flayer

One Last Adventure also depicts a debate in the writers’ room about how to describe the final battle with Vecna ​​in the Abyss. Matt Duffer thought the giant Mind Flayer was the coolest part of the scene, and they initially talked about everyone fighting inside the monster. Finn Wolfhard asks his character Mike to have a weapon in the fight, which is represented by Mike asking his sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) for a gun and getting a flare instead. In the documentary, writer Paul Dichter said there needed to be more monsters in the Abyss like the demogorgon, demobat, or demodog, pointing out that it would be “crazy to have nothing there,” while writer Kate Trefry worried about “demo-fatigue” after encountering so many monsters in the mid-season finale.

Trefy’s perspective seems to win out, resulting in the mostly empty Abyss as shown in the finale. Matt Duffer also admitted that he and Ross had a lot of problems shooting on the blue screen, which was used to create the yellow Abyss desert. In contrast, the massive fight in episode 4, “Sorcerer” was shot on a backlot location representing downtown Hawkins, while the scenes inside the Mind Flayer used a 130-foot location called the “tree of pain” that was built in 16 weeks.

Even more so from The Making of Stranger Things 5

In addition to plenty of footage of the cast and crew getting emotional as they read the final script, showed up for the final day of shooting, or finished their final scenes, the documentary also has a lot of fun footage about the making of the series:

• Early sketches of the Upside Down and Abyss maps had a region of Vecna ​​called Shadowfell. That was the first name of the Field of Shadows used 4th Dungeons & Dragons 2008 edition. It’s also home to the terrifying vampire Strahd Von Zarovich, who fights in his party in Mike’s last D&D game.

• The VFX crew did 100 different looks for Vecna ​​including a cloaked person, a four-legged insectoid figure, and a spiky creature before settling on the appearance of the grape.

• The Duffer family mother was especially upset with them for killing off Bob (Sean Astin) in season 2. While the Duffer family joked with the large cast at the first table read for season 5 that they “should have killed off some of you,” they said they tried not to kill off too many characters to keep the fun of the show.

---

One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 is streaming now on Netflix.