Having come under quite a bit of criticism of its “binge-culture” release model, many subscribers have wondered whether some of the streamer’s biggest assets will be moving to a weekly release similar to that of Disney+ and their Marvel and Star Wars shows. Although this could happen in some cases, the fifth and final season of Stranger Things will most likely not adopt such a change and will still play as a horror-filled binge-fest for fans, according to Netflix’s U.S. Scripted Chief.
The latest season of Stranger Things has arrived in two parts, but that does not have anything to do with possible release changes happening at Netflix and all to do with the fact that the epic final two episodes are not complete yet. However, with season five probably not arriving until 2024, there have been a lot of questions whether Netflix will have moved to releasing its most in demand shows to a weekly release rather than dropping all episodes at the same time for fans to blast through in one night. Now Peter Friedlander, head of scripted series for U.S. and Canada at Netflix, has seemingly put to bed ideas that this could be the case for the finale of Stranger Things. As reported by Variety, he said:
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“For the fans of ‘Stranger Things,’ this is how they’ve been watching that show, and I think to change that on them would be disappointing. To not give them exactly what they’ve been expecting — which is ‘Stranger Things’ is a seasonal experience, they go through that with them — I think that it would be an abrupt change for the member.”
Netflix Will Primarily Stick With Their Binge Model for Scripted Series
Despite the recent downturn in subscriber numbers and the worries that brought to Netflix’s future as one of the biggest streamers out there, it seems that they have no plans to completely drop their model of releasing whole seasons of shows in one go to allow fans to either binge a series or watch it at their leisure. During the panel, Friedlander added:
Whether this means that all future Stranger Things spin-offs will also stick to the same release model in the future is something that we will have to wait and find out, but Friedlander briefly touched on the possibility of more to come from the Stranger Things Universe. He commented that talks about the franchise’s future are “highly confidential” until any decisions have been made, but fans will “hear very loudly” once plans are in place. With the Duffer Brother’s already having confirmed that they have several ideas for where Stranger Things could go following the conclusion of the main series, it looks like there is still a lot more to come from the franchise in the coming years.
“We fundamentally believe that we want to give our members the choice in how they view. And so giving them that option on these scripted series to watch as much as they want to watch when they watch it, is still fundamental to what we want to provide. And so when you see something like a batched season with ‘Stranger Things,’ this is our attempt at making sure we can get shows out quicker to the members.”
