The Duffer Brothers acknowledge poor ‘Stranger Things’ reviews: “A lot of noise”
Netflix’s beloved series Stranger Things has finally come to an end, but not without some hiccups. Show creators, the Duffer brothers, have officially commented on some of the poor reviews the final season faced.
The fifth and final season, which aired episodically a decade after the show first hit the streaming service, saw the group of teens face off against super-villain Vecna and his plan to destroy the world.
Though the first few episodes of the season finale were highly anticipated, and even crashed Netflix for thousands of users upon its release, the seventh episode, titled ‘The Bridge’, quickly became the worst-rated of the entire franchise.
Specifically, ‘The Bridge’ contains a scene in which Will Byers, played by Noah Schnapp, comes out to all of his friends and family. The scene, which took 24 hours to shoot, has received a lot of backlash from fans and critics.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Matt and Ross Duffer were asked what they thought about the reaction to the final season, as well as to Will’s coming-out scene more specifically.
Ross replied, “There’s always a lot of noise. Obviously, that was more noise. But our main thing was, do we believe in the scene?”
He added, “And for us, we’re so proud of Noah. That was my main thing — checking on Noah and making sure how he was doing, because it’s such a vulnerable performance that he gave.”
Matt agreed, stating that “At the end of the day, that’s what matters to us.” However, he also acknowledged that “people are extremely, extremely passionate about the characters in the show.”
Nonetheless, the pair insisted that they gave everything they could to the final season: “Ross and I have always said about the final season, in terms of making sure we don’t have any regrets, is that we put absolutely everything we had into the season — blood, sweat and tears,” Matt shared.
He added, “We left everything on the field. We just gave our entire selves to it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the creators confirmed that there will be a Stranger Things spin-off that will investigate the storyline of Henry, who is also the supervillain Vecna. It will aim to answer “lingering questions,” left unanswered by the series finale, but will include “an entirely new mythology.”
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