The dam has broken on Stranger Things season five coverage, with the Duffer brothers, the cast, and even Netflix PR popping up all over the place to announce episode run times (long!), hint at Easter eggs (Barb’s back?), and tease resolutions to big mysteries (like, what is the Upside Down really?). But while fans are eagerly awaiting the final season, they also can’t help but worry. What if, like Game of Thrones before it, Stranger Things can’t stick the landing?
Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler and has given over slightly less than half of his life to the show at this point, had the same fear. In a new Time profile chronicling the end of Stranger Things, he admitted, “I think everyone was pretty worried, honestly. The way that Game of Thrones got torn to shreds in that final season, we’re all walking into this going, ‘We hope to not have that kind of thing happen.’”
Fortunately, those concerns were seemingly unfounded. “But then we read the scripts. We knew that it was something special.”
The pressure that comes with bringing a beloved series to an end—and not pissing people off—is a tremendous task; just look how furious viewers were with Squid Game‘s weak conclusion. You don’t get another chance to course-correct with a new storyline, and you risk damaging not just the show’s future potential for spin-offs (as Netflix and the Duffer brothers have discussed for Stranger Things) but also tarnishing its legacy.
Game of Thrones, of course, was able to keep its world going with House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. But there’ll always be an asterisk noting that big, fire-breathing letdown.
Will Stranger Things suffer the same fate? Finn Wolfhard says no! We’ll find out if the fans agree starting November 26, when season five’s first chunk of episodes hits Netflix.
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