Stranger Things executive producer Shawn Levy explains why the show’s fourth season was split into two parts.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Levy revealed that the decision to divide the season up was to prevent fans from waiting too long for Stranger Things content. "We didn’t think nine episodes were going to be ready in time, and we have made the world wait long enough," Levy said. "We always knew that if we could deliver the first seven, it’s such a satisfying breaking point and pay-off moment, that it’ll keep people fed for enough weeks so we can finish up volume two."
Stranger Things Season 3 was released back in 2019, meaning that it's been almost three years since audiences last visited the spooky town of Hawkins. To compensate for fans' extended wait, Levy and the Duffer Brothers, the series' creators, ended up doubling the episode length in Season 4. The second volume will consist of two episodes; Episode 8 clocks in at 85 minutes while the finale sports a two-and-a-half-hour runtime.
As far as the decision to not use a weekly release model for Stranger Things 4, Levy explained that the creative team thought about it but decided against it in favor of splitting Season 4 into two parts. "Every streamer is playing around with different models. We’ve seen full-season, binge-worthy streaming, aka Stranger Things 1, 2 and 3. We’ve seen Disney+ and Hulu try a weekly model, which didn’t feel quite right for this," the Academy Award-nominated producer said. "So, we’re happy that we were able to give our audience a huge meal of story."
Now that the first volume of Stranger Things 4 is available, many fans are wondering what to expect from the remaining two episodes of the season. "[Splitting the season] also gives us time to stick the landing by finishing the last two episodes really strongly," Levy teased. "This season relies on next-level visual effects and world-building, and as you can imagine, Volume Two is very ambitious in its storytelling, and we need a little more time to finish strong."
In addition to Stranger Things, Levy has been developing plenty of other projects. His recent work includes directing 2021’s Free Guy and 2022’s The Adam Project, both of which star Ryan Reynolds and the latter of which is also a Netflix Original. Levy was also recently announced to be the director of the upcoming third Deadpool film.
Volume One of Stranger Things 4 is currently available to stream on Netflix. Volume Two will be released on July 1.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter