Get ready for one long journey into the Upside Down.
The highly anticipated fourth season of Netflix's Stranger Things debuts next week, though the show's creators previously announced it would be split into two volumes due to its "unprecedented length."
They weren't kidding. The fourth season consists of nine episodes, and Netflix revealed Friday the finale alone will be nearly two and a half hours long. The prior two episodes are also each as long as a feature film: the seventh episode is 1 hour and 38 minutes, and the eighth episode is 1 hour and 25 minutes.
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Previous reporting from The Wall Street Journal indicated the new season of Stranger Things, one of Netflix's biggest hits, ran up a massive price tag of $30 million per episode.
Netflix also revealed Friday the first seven episodes will be released on May 27, while the final two episodes will debut weeks later on July 1. This is a new release strategy for the series, which previously debuted all episodes at once. Season five, which doesn't have a premiere date, will be the show's last.
"With nine scripts, over 800 pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a runtime nearly twice the length of any previous season, Stranger Things 4 was the most challenging season yet, but also the most rewarding one," creators Matt and Ross Duffer said. "Everyone involved is incredibly proud of the results, and we can't wait to share it with you."
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