Netflix has whetted fans appetites the old-fashioned way with a quick sizzle reel of behind-the-scenes footage from the ongoing and clearly mammoth production of Stranger Things season 5.
The enormous show has been a huge draw for subscribers for years now, and its fifth season has been a long time coming, but the teaser almost serves the purpose of reminding people just how big an undertaking it's become.
The reel (embedded above) shows off huge wardrobe departments, massive sets and stages and a veritable army of people working on the show, from those involved in its camerawork to those dressing its sets – clearly with plenty more gore to come, too.
It also features a long set of quotes from the principal cast talking about how excited they are to get back into the saddle, and how meaningful it is for them to finally finish the saga. After all, as Millie Bobbie Brown says, it's been pretty much a decade that they've all been working on the show, taking them from childhood into adulthood and stardom.
Take it all in, nerds…we’ve hit the halfway mark of filming the final season and wanted to give you all a look at what we’ve been up to pic.twitter.com/RdQsZvoPYwJuly 15, 2024
Still, for all that this will get fans hyped, there's a reason it's not a trailer or anything – Netflix is still very much in the process of shooting the show, and says that it's reached the halfway point. That means there's still an awful lot left to shoot, and that's not even considering the time it'll take to do post-production.
All of this explains why we don't have a release date for the show by any stretch yet, and underlines the fact that we should probably be pessimistic about when it's likely to arrive. We're in the second half of 2024 now, so anything before mid-2025 might be hopeful.
Some of its stars have described the process of filming the show's fifth season as being like shooting eight movies, so we're also expecting episodes that stretch well past the hour mark by default, something that was already increasingly common in its fourth season.
So, there's clearly a long way to go, but also a lot in store for us when Stranger Things Season 5 finally arrives – and until Netflix has enough footage to give us a real teaser trailer, you'll have to just pore over the details from this showreel for clues. It might quickly elevate Netflix up the best streaming service charts though.
