Stranger Things Fans Are Mad All Over Again About the Series Finale After Netflix’s Documentary Reveals

Stranger Things just can’t seem to end like it’s supposed to. Hot on the heels of a faux secret episode that was rumored to drop, comes an actual documentary about making the final season of Netflix’s hit show into a global phenomenon. One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 has premiered on Netflix. “Costumes. Sets. Special effects,” the tagline reads, “This documentary showcases the hundreds of people who perfected every episode of the final season of Stranger Things.” Indeed, the documentary delivers as advertised, taking fans behind the scenes of the Stranger Things 5 set and revealing all kinds of filmmaking tricks that were used for the final battle against Vecna.

One Last Adventure also features moments with the Stranger Things creators, the Duffer Brothers, as well as various cast and crew members, all talking about things that either got cut, changed, or added to the final episodes. However, when fans learned that the show could’ve had a very different ending, the reactions were… passionate.

Stranger Things Fans Are Mad As Hell (Again) About That Ending

“The funniest thing ever is when people thought that that Stranger Things documentary was gonna be a secret episode and it turned out to be a whole show of the Duffer Brothers saying repeatedly ‘We have no idea what we’re doing,’” @TheRealDruV1 said in a post. “Go touch grass, nerds!!”

That sentiment is shared by so many other cynical fans, who managed not to get caught up in the hysteria of the “Episode 9” theory. Watching the hype go from worldwide excitement (for a fake thing) to muted disappointment (over the actual documentary) has been kind of humorous – if shcaedenfreude is your thing, that is.

One revelation from the documentary that has fans shook is that the final episode of the show wasn’t fully scripted until very, very late into production. “The stranger things documentary stating that the ending was unwritten yet the first episode still dropped! okay!!!!” Samjay said in a post.

As a matter of fact, a lot of fans came to the same conclusion: that the writing was where Stranger Things really dropped the ball in the final season, not the production or the players. “Kzyaa” didn’t put it eloquently, but definitely captured the sentiment: “watching documentary one last adventure of stranger things is just realizing, that big prop with all the effort all crew gave just fumbled bcs the story writer did their job so badly and ppl forgot how actually beautifull and put together the set in the final season actually are”.

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Don’t think it’s all bad sentiment out there: “John Squires,” for example, had nothing but good vibes to share about the documentary: “A lot of people are watching this Stranger Things documentary looking for confirmation on their feelings about certain things but all I saw was a lovely group of hundreds of people putting their hearts, souls & minds together to fight reality and make magic happen. Enjoyed that.”

Other fans don’t think that this documentary should’nt have been released at all – at least while there is still so much heat on Stranger Things. “I’ve said before and I’ll say it again,” claims Somileven. “This documentary was really the final nail in the coffin, the Duffer brothers successfully ruined Stranger Things legacy”.

The nitpicks go deeper: fans noticed that key cast memebers like Winona Ryder weren’t included in the documentary, sparking questions about what was seen behind the scenes, and how carefully crafted it may have been. After all, it’s been no secret that the Stranger Things cast had its own level of inner turmoil in the final season. Keeping that off camera isn’t a cakewalk.

You can judge for yourself by watching One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5. You can also discuss the show with us on the ComicBook Forum.