Running Time For Stranger Things 4 Finale Is Shorter Than You Heard

The upcoming season finale of Stranger Things is shorter than you may have heard. 

The first batch of season four’s episodes are currently streaming on Netflix, with the final two episodes set to land in July. 

Viewers who have already been working their way through season four may have noticed that its episodes are longer than previous seasons, and the season’s final episode is set to be more than two hours long. 

When news first broke of the longer episode lengths, it was widely reported that the final episode of season four would be a whopping two-and-a-half hours. 

Official finale runtime: 2 hours and 19 minutes

— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) June 3, 2022

However, it’s now been confirmed to be slightly shorter, but is still a lot longer than your average episode of a TV show with a runtime of two-hours-and-nineteen minutes – better make sure you’ve got a decent stockpile of snacks ready for when that’s released. 

The 'Stranger Writers' twitter account confirmed the length of the episode, with fans having a fairly varied response to the bumper runtime. 

One fan commented: “A whole a** movie, I am here for it.”

Another said: “More shows should do this.”

Someone else disagreed, posting: “There’s absolutely no reason for one episode of TV to be this long, on any show ever. And I like Stranger Things! But this should be three episodes.”

A fourth wrote: “My brother in Christ that is too long for even a film.”

In an interview with The Wrap, Stranger Things co-creator Matt Duffer said the last two episodes of season four were ‘movies’.

He said: "[Episodes] seven and nine in particular are movies. And nine is a long movie.”

Duffer explained that the need for longer episodes was because there was a lot more plot in season four than in previous seasons. 

He explained: "A lot of it had to do with the fact that we had characters spread out in three locations and we had a lot more plot. It must be quadruple the plot we had in season three. 

"That was our fun blockbuster season. This season we knew that season five was going to be our last, we had to start revealing a lot."

"The more we were writing, the more we realised we need more time in order for these reveals to land, in order for these storylines to work. 

"Partway through we knew we needed to ask Netflix for nine episodes instead of eight and as we started shooting we realised, 'Oh these are mega-long episodes.'"

The first volume of Stranger Things season four is streaming on Netflix now, while the final two will land on 1 July.