Once again, it looks like those internet rumors are proving to be, you guessed it, untrue. Stranger Things creator and showrunner Ross Duffer made it a point to squash the speculation about the runtimes for the upcoming Season 5 episodes that started online.
“Lol not even close to accurate,” one half of the Duffer Brothers explained via his Instagram stories, including nothing else in his statement other than the graphic with the fake, elongated runtimes to illustrate his point.
In the original post, which was seen making its way around Twitter recently, it shows most episodes clocking in at two and a half hours or more, with some even hitting beyond three hours — a generally absurd notion for just one episode of a TV series, let alone an entire season. The graphic was faked to look like it came directly from Netflix as well, which was able to fool many fans online for a period of time.
🚨 CODE RED 🚨
THE STRANGER THINGS 5 TEASER IS HERE pic.twitter.com/xklBxyJ11N
— Netflix (@netflix) July 16, 2025
Some of what must have bolstered the rumor is what cast members have previously said about the runtime of the finale episodes. Maya Hawke revealed during an episode of Podcrushed last year that season 5 will be “basically eight movies” with “very long” episodes, while Finn Wolfhard told Collider in January that “not every episode is like a full-blown movie, but there are definitely some episodes this year that the runtime is definitely film-length.”
For what it’s worth, Ross Duffer in particular has been vocal about Season 5 lately, taking to social media to also quell audience worries about spoilers for the final season. “Don’t worry about spoilers,” he wrote in an Instagram grid post that included the recent teaser trailer. “This teaser pulls from every episode except 7, but it’s mostly Volume One and just barely scratches the surface.”
Volume One of Stranger Things season 5 premieres on Netflix on November 26.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
