‘Stranger Things' doc sparks backlash against series creators: Here's why

The documentary on the final season of Stranger Things, titled One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, began streaming on Netflix January 12.

Offering an intimate look behind the concluding shoot of the mega successful TV series, the project was meant to be one last send-off for its dedicated fans.

However, the well-intentioned plot unexpectedly fell through when the show’s fanbase found some of the revelations shared in the documentary to be unacceptable and bordering on incompetence.

“We went into production without having a finished script for the finale,” series co-creator Matt Duffer explained in the film. “That was scary because we wanted to get it right. It was the most important script of the season.”

While adding that he and co-creator Ross Duffer, also his brother, were “getting hammered constantly by production and by Netflix, Matt admitted, it was “the most difficult writing circumstances” they have ever found themselves in. 

“Not just because there was the pressure of we had to make sure the script was good, but there’s never been so much noise at the same time.”

The claims did not go down well with fans of the show, who had already had strong feelings about the final episode being lacklustre, even leading to a popular theory about a secret finale which was eventually shot down.

Further discovery of ChatGPT tabs in the documentary sparked more intense backlash, with fans being “100%” sure that certain lines were written by the AI bot.

One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 previously made headlines for the absence of cast members like Winona Ryder and David Harbour, which the documentary’s director Martina Radwan explained by noting that the team “tried” but “couldn’t find the time” to sit down with them.