Stranger Things Director Reveal Series Superstition That Continues in Season 4

Over the course of three seasons, Stranger Things has grown into a bonafide cultural phenomenon. The genre-bending Netflix series has earned quite a lot of praise over the years, in part thanks to its ever-growing ensemble cast and crew. Among them is executive producer Shawn Levy, who has also directed a number of episodes across the series’ run. As Levy recently revealed in an appearance on CinemaBlend‘s ReelBlend podcast, there’s an interesting science to which episodes he has ended up directing, all thanks to an unexpected superstition.

“It started off in Season 1, it was out of necessity. Nobody knew what we were doing. I had never produced television,” Levy explained. “The [Duffer Brothers] were these 31-year-old twins with like the greatest script that I’ve ever read. And Netflix said yes. The initial plan was that the brothers were gonna direct all of them, and as we were making Episodes 1 and 2, it became clear, like, ‘Oh no, we don’t have the other scripts finished.’ So I basically said ‘Okay, I’ll go to Atlanta, I’ll do 3 and 4 just to buy you time to go write Episodes 6, 7, and 8,’ or whatever it was. So Season 1 it was out of necessity.”

“Little did I know I would be lucking into some of the most iconic moments in television history, with the Christmas lights, with the Demogorgon coming through the wall, with the lights [spelling] R-U-N, run,” Levy continued. “Like, Episodes 3 and 4, man, they’re always that inflection point between setting up the characters and sh-t going nuts. So Season 1, I literally just did it. ‘Okay, brothers, I’ll be the big brother. Go back to the writing hole, I’ll do it.’ And then Season 1 hit the way it did, and the brothers and I kind of just said, ‘Alright, you know what, change nothing.’ Like, we’re just superstitious enough to not want to mess with fate. And that’s why I always direct 3 and 4 in every season, including the one that’s upcoming.”

The notion that Levy will also be directing Episode 3 and 4 of Season 4 will surely excite fans, especially after the prolonged delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ll just say that we are long-delayed, and the Duffers and I want to share season four with the world as badly as the world wants it. Part of what’s taking time is long before COVID and the pandemic existed, season four was built to be by far the most ambitious, cinematic, sprawling and epic season that we’ve ever done,” Levy recently said in another interview. “By not just a little — by a lot. So the complexity of season four, even before we had the obstacles, hurdles and challenges of a pandemic, is taking a lot of time because it is super worth the wait.”