After debunking rumors that Stranger Things’ final season would include episodes over two hours long, co-creator Ross Duffer finally has some actual answers for us about the season’s runtime — or at least, the first half of it. The showrunner took to Instagram to reveal the episode lengths for the first half of Season 5, which drops on Netflix on November 26.
According to Duffer’s Instagram post (helpfully highlighted by the folks at Bloody Disgusting), Episode 1, titled “The Crawl,” is one hour and eight minutes long, while the untitled second episode comes out to fifty-four minutes; Episode 3, “The Turnbow Trap,” runs an hour and six minutes; and Episode 4, “Sorcerer,” is the first to hit feature-length status at one hour and twenty-three minutes.
These episodes are definitely shorter than the first half of Season 4, with three of those episodes topping out at an hour and eighteen minutes, while Episode 3, “The Monster and The Superhero,” runs for an hour and five minutes. Whether any of Season 5 will match Season 4’s massive finale — which runs for a whopping two hours and twenty-two minutes — remains to be seen.
Stranger Things Season 5 sees the return of series staples Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Crown, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, and more, as well as a new cameo appearance from ‘80s icon Linda Hamilton. The season synopsis is as follows:
The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.
The first half of Stranger Things Season 5 premieres on November 26, with the next three episodes releasing on Christmas Day, and the series finale premiering on December 31.
