New Stranger Things director Dan Trachtenberg says season 5 of the Netflix show won’t make the same mistakes Game of Thrones did in its final season.
Stranger Things season five is perhaps the most hotly-anticipated TV series finale we’ve seen in years. However, sadly, it will be quite some time before we see the climactic end to Vecna and Eleven’s story, with the writers’ and actors’ strikes in America leaving the series’ production completely up in the air.
Dan Trachtenberg “excited” to get started on Season 5 episode
Over the seasons, Stranger Things has utilised returning directors to oversee key episodes. In June 2023, it was confirmed that 10 Cloverfield Lane and Prey director Dan Trachtenberg was being added to Season 5 and would be directing one episode.
Trachtenberg recently revealed he has read the script for his episode and was “excited” to get started.
In an interview with Variety, he said: “That’s the big part of the strike. I have read my episode, and I had been prepping the episode before the strike. I can tell you that it’s awesome, I haven’t really done an episode of a TV show. I’ve stuck to doing pilots and movies, but ‘Stranger Things’ is a laser into my heart. The Duffer Brothers are incredible, and we have so much in common. With this being the last season and hearing a little bit about what could be an episode I could do, I got excited.”
New Stranger Things director says season five won’t make same mistakes as Game of Thrones
Stranger Things fans are no doubt wary of being disappointed by the series finale, much like Game of Thrones fans were after the conclusion of its final season.
George R.R. Martin’s TV adaptation started out as one of the best television shows of all time, but failed to live up to expectations with an underwhelming final season.
However, Trachtenberg insists Stranger Things won’t tail off like HBO’s fantasy series did.
“I don’t think ‘Stranger Things’ falls into a category of television seasons like ‘Game of Thrones’ where the pilot is cool, slows down, and the last two episodes are the big battle.
He also teased that rock and roll music will continue to play an important part in Stranger Things Season 5.
“I can tell you, and pointing to other seasons, there is rock and roll throughout the entire season.”
David Harbour recently teased “terrific” season five
David Harbour, who plays Chief Jim Hopper on the show, recently echoed Dan’s sentiments that Season 5 will be a hit.
“Before the strike, we were sent scripts. They’re terrific, as per usual. They continue to outdo themselves, these currently-on-strikes writers, called the Duffer brothers. It’s a hell of an undertaking, too. The set pieces and the things in the scripts that we saw are bigger than anything we’ve done in the past,” Harbour shared with the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“You gotta imagine where it starts, after where Season 4 ended, you watch us on that hill looking at the ash and the smoke, fires. And we’re gonna start somewhere after that, so you gotta imagine that the world is a different place. It’s great, it’ll take a while to shoot, which’ll be tough, since we can’t get started yet, but it is what it is.”
He added, “I’m excited to go back, I’m excited to wrap it up in a bold, amazing way. I’m excited to really swing with this character, because you know that they’re gonna pay off these O.G. characters — Eleven, Hopper, Joyce, Will, Mike — they’re gonna pay them off in big ways because they’ve lived with you for the past eight years.”
It’s unclear when Season 5 will eventually premiere, but given filming is still yet to start it doesn’t seem like it’ll arrive until at least 2025.
