Netflix boss Ted Sarandos has suggested Stranger Things Season 4 could have been even longer but was pushed back by pandemic-related costs. According to Deadline, Netflix confirmed that COVID-19 fees amounted to between five and 10 per cent of its $17 billion content spend. This resulted in some shows like Stranger Things needing to cut back on their budget.
“If you did that all again and took that off the top you might even get a couple of extra episodes out of it,” Sarandos said of Stranger Things Season 4. He later pointed out that the series was affected by the pandemic in more ways than just the lack of budget.
“[Stranger Things] was probably affected as any [by COVID-19] because of the young cast and the size and scope of the production and the multiple locations that we shot in. It was a very expensive burden on the show to make sure that we could deliver it,” Sarandos said.
“One of the catalysts of splitting the season was how long it took to produce that show and a lot of that was stalled because of early shutdowns of the production and being extremely careful with the cast of the show, early on in COVID,” he added.
It’s certainly something to think about considering that Stranger Things Season 4 already told an impressive story. We’re not sure what the extra two episodes could have done for the ongoing storyline but it would have been interesting to see.
All nine episodes of Stranger Things Season 4 are now streaming on Netflix.
