A second season of Stranger Things is all but a given at this stage – the Duffers Brothers want it, the show’s producers want it and perhaps most important of all, Netflix subscribers have thrown their support behind the hit ’80s series.
Going one step further, when quizzed about the possibility of a sophomore run by The Guardian, Netflix’s chief executive Reed Hastings said, “we would dumb not to.”
Granted, Hastings stopped short of giving a definitive answer on whether Stranger Things season 2 will be commissioned, but much of that comes down to the business model Netflix adheres to – one that’s fairly different to most, if not all major networks.
“Because we don’t have advertising we are under a whole different model to not compare all the shows and rank other shows, because it kind of doesn’t matter what everybody loves the most it, matters what you or I love most. You can get approximations … if you look on IMDB the most popular TV show right now it’s Stranger Things, so that’s a reasonable proxy. It’s not that there’s no data, just that we don’t give out our data.”
Besides, Netflix has never been one to disclose viewing figures for any of its individual programs – original or otherwise – so fans of Hawkins, Indiana will have to place their trust in the Powers That Be.
Assuming Netflix sticks by its guns and orders a second season, Matt and Ross Duffer recently discussed the possibility of a longer outing.
People say, “They need to make way more episodes,” but I like to think one of the reasons it works for people is because it’s paced and it feels like a movie, and that’s because it’s not too long. I think, if we pushed it to 13 episodes, we’d have to start coming up with all these bullshit adventures they’re going on, that aren’t directly tied to the main tension. Eight felt about right. But if we’re developing Season 2 and it feels like seven or nine or eleven, Netflix would support any of those lengths.
Stranger Things is available to stream now for Netflix subscribers.