Stranger Things 4 is only a few days away, with the first part (Volume 1) of season 4 set to bring the show’s first seven episodes to your Netflix account on May 27th. Volume 2 premieres on July 1st, so you won’t have too long to wait for the final two episodes. It might seem unusual for Netflix to include just two episodes in Volume 2, a cheap trick to keep you subscribed. But Volume 2 brings four additional hours of Stranger Things 4 content, including the finale, which is 2.5 hours long.
How long is each episode of Stranger Things season 4?
There’s a lot of pressure on a TV show’s final episode. It doesn’t just have to be great and tie up all the loose ends in a way that makes sense. It also has to be well done. The finale has to be well-paced, so it makes the most of the time the showmakers have at their disposal to complete the story. The last thing we want is for it to feel rushed.
But regular TV shows are usually stuck in a one-hour format. That’s how long you have to end the story I’m the finale, commercials included. Streaming services offer shows additional time, so each episode can include a lot of extra content. Plus, there are no commercials involved. Yet.
Moreover, streaming offers showrunners the chance to improvise with the length of their episodes. That’s what the Duffer brothers did with Stranger Things 4, including the finale. We’re looking at 13 hours of Upside Down action for the next season in the Stranger Things story. That’s a fantastic accomplishment considering there are only nine episodes divided into two parts.
That’s an average of 86 minutes per episode, something you don’t usually see with a TV show. That’s not a rumor, as the Stranger Things 4 episode length data comes directly from Netflix’s Tudum website.
The Stranger Things 4 finale
We already knew the episodes will be over an hour long. But Netflix just revealed that the final two episodes in season 4 will total nearly four hours. “For the real geeks out there, Episode 407 is 1 hour, 38 minutes; Episode 408 is around 1 hour, 25 minutes; and 409 is almost two and a half hours,” Netflix said.
Put differently, the final three episodes in Stranger Things 4 will each be as long as a movie. The finale will be longer than the latest MCU adventure, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Marvel sequel clocks in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The good news in all of this is that you’ll control the playback. You don’t have to plan for bathroom breaks, as you’ll be watching Stranger Things 4 from home.
Then again, having a 2.5-hour-long finale for Stranger Things better pay off. Just because a show’s finale is longer than other shows doesn’t mean it’s better. Let’s remember that the Game of Thrones series finale was 80 minutes long, and we all know how well that went.
While you wait for Volume 1 to hit Netflix, you can already watch the show’s first eight minutes right now.
More Netflix coverage: For more Netflix news, check out our coverage of the latest new Netflix movies and series to watch.
