Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have revealed that one of the episodes in the second season of the Netflix smash hit will feel more like “standalone” episode for the series.
When season two was announced, fans were excited to hear that when the series finally returned, with it would come an additional ninth episode but it seems it isn’t that cut and dry as the creators have revealed the story for season two is still more like eight episodes, with an extra special episode in the mix.
The Duffer Brothers were recent guests on Remote Controlled, a podcast from Variety in which Ross explained that the extra episode will make much more sense when the season finally releases all nine new episodes this fall on Netflix:
“I think it will be pretty clear when the season comes out… there’s sort of one extra special episode. It’s really eight episodes and there’s a little special one in there that stretches it out to nine.”
Matt revealed that additional is “almost sort of a standalone episode” before Ross added that the additional episode is likely not something to happen in seasons going forward:
“I think it’s very specific to this season. Moving forward it will probably more likely be eight [episodes].”
As for the episodes themselves — most of the installments in season one clocked in around 50 minutes with the exception of episode seven which ran just over 40 minutes but it might be a little different for season two as Matt explained that in addition to the season being longer, the episodes may be as well:
“The lengths are all over the place for these episodes. We’re not done with them but some of these episodes are long.”
But don’t worry, the creators are still approaching the season as one big movie, however, this aren’t going to kick into high gear as quickly this year. When discussing the structure of the follow-up — which the brothers feel they have “executed better” than the first season — Ross explained that because young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) won’t disappear in the first ten minutes, things won’t ramp up into the adventure as quickly:
“This year we’re able to slowly ramp into the mystery so it’s structured a little more traditionally and we really wanted episodes five and six — we didn’t really have an end to our quote on quote second act… because we like seeing it as a big movie and we didn’t have that climax, there was a moment in the middle of the first season where it didn’t build the way we wanted it to so we really tried to remedy that season where it’s a slower build and then it just builds, builds, builds to this sort of very epic end of the second act and then there’s a little calm before the third act storm.”
Stranger Things 2 stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, and Noah Schnapp. The series has also added Sean Astin (The Goonies), Paul Reiser (Aliens), Brett Gelman (Jobs), Dacre Montgomery (Power Rangers), Danish actress Linnea Berthelsen, and broadway star Sadie Sink into the mix as well.
Stranger Things 2 hits Netflix this Halloween. Stay tuned to Heroic Hollywood for the latest news on Stranger Things as we learn it.
Source: Variety