[This story contains spoilers from the series finale of Stranger Things.]
Shawn Levy has been there from the beginning — all the way back to when Will Byers first disappeared on Stranger Things. The executive producer of the Netflix mega-hit has directed two episodes each season, often pivotal hours key to the mythology of the Upside Down (see season four’s “Dear Billy“). When it came time to hop back behind the camera for the newly released fifth and final season, the prolific filmmaker had to balance his Stranger Things schedule with his other mega-hit for the big screen, Marvel’s 2024 movie Deadpool & Wolverine.
So he and the Duffer Brothers — Matt and Ross, the series creators/writers/directors — decided that Levy would direct episode six, “Escape From Camazotz” — the episode that reunited star Sadie Sink with Levy once again as Max runs for her life, echoing “Dear Billy” — and that he would share directing duties with the Duffers on episode seven, the penultimate episode of the entire saga, “The Bridge,” to share the massive workload. “It felt like an outgrowth of the collaboration we’ve had for nearly a decade,” says Levy.
Below, Levy brings The Hollywood Reporter behind the biggest beats of those episodes while reacting to the Duffers sticking the landing with the series finale (“I was a sobbing wreck. I’m a little humiliated in retrospect,” he shares of his FaceTime reaction with the Duffers). He also teases where the franchise goes next with animated series Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 and the forthcoming live-action spinoff that was briefly teased in the series finale, while also teasing Star Wars: Starfighter, coming 2027: “If I can balance the epic and the intimate the way the Duffers have with Stranger Things, I’ll make a movie and an original and new Star Wars adventure that can be really satisfying to fans and audiences.”
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You direct two episodes of Stranger Things each season. How did you and the Duffers land on you directing episode six and co-directing episode seven of this final season?
The intention was to do the same thing we’d done every season, which is that I would come and direct episodes three and four. But with my Deadpool & Wolverine schedule, that became impossible. So I got to come and do episode six, which is later in the season arc than I normally do and that was really exciting. Once I was in Atlanta, the Duffers and I started talking about, “What if we share duties on episode seven?” I had never co-directed with anyone and, obviously, the Duffers have only co-directed with each other. But it felt like a way that I could spend a little longer in the bloodstream of the show, and I could also buy the brothers some time and bandwidth to go finish writing and prepping the behemoth finale they had in front of them.
Did co-directing with the Duffers take any getting used to for you guys?
I definitely think it would have if the three of us were on set together sharing the notes and duties. This was more of a sharing of the workload. The brothers directed half the scenes, I directed half the scenes. We collaborated in advance of shooting the episode, regardless of who was on set, so it was pretty organic. It’s one reason the brothers and I liked the idea — it felt like an outgrowth of the collaboration we’ve had for nearly a decade.
You’ve been intricately involved in Stranger Things since the start, but did anything in these final scripts really titilate you that you would get to direct?
Oh, yes. Yes. My first reaction to episode six was, as soon as I heard about this insane melting room non-proposal scene [between Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer], I remember actually saying out loud to my colleagues, “Oh my god, some poor son of a bitch is going to have to figure out that scene, which feels like a nightmare.”
Because it’s not the kind of premise you can do convincingly with visual effects. It has to be practical, and that’s near impossible to engineer and design. When it became clear that I was that poor son of a bitch who was going to direct episode six (laughs), I knew I had my work cut out for me. I literally spent months while editing Deadpool & Wolverine figuring out the engineering of this melting sludge — how we would build this room in a pool that could catch the sludge flowing down the walls and through the ceiling, and storyboarding the sequence all while finishing post-production on Deadpool & Wolverine. I knew that a sequence like that was so complex, you can’t just show up and wing it. You really have to do the work in advance to set yourself up for success. So that was a big focus of my energy, as was the hospital and laundry room sequences in both six and seven.
But what also excited me was the number of super juicy emotional scenes that I had the privilege of directing — that Jonathan [Heaton] and Nancy [Dyer] marathon of a scene; these beautifully emotional Dustin [Gaten Matarazzo] and Steve [Joe Keery] scenes, both in the stairwell and in the closet with Eddie’s [Joseph Quinn] spears; and of course, the ending of episode six, once again, brought Sadie [Sink, who plays Max] and I to a red void and a run for her life, which had echoes of our “Dear Billy” episode that felt very present on set while we shot the ending of episode six.
Did you also shoot Max (Sadie Sink) waking up in seven?
Oh, yeah. And I’ll never forget it. We had shot all of the action sequences with the Demodogs down in that laundry room [in the hospital], and then it was time to shoot Max’s awakening — the opening of episode seven. It was already a beautifully written scene on the page, but nothing prepared me for the emotion and depth that Caleb [McLaughlin, who plays Lucas] and Sadie brought to their performances. My recollection is we did two takes, possibly only one. They were so present and amazing. I remember on Caleb’s close-up, I had trouble saying “cut,” because my throat was so choked.
Were you there for that table read when Max woke up?
No. I was on the press tour of Deadpool & Wolverine when they read that episode. I heard reports that it was really strong, but Sadie and Caleb went next level on that scene when we shot it, and all of us who were in that dingy laundry room will never forget it.
And were you there for the filming of Will’s (Noah Schnapp’s) coming out scene in seven?
The Duffers directed that scene. I had done some prep work and rehearsing with Noah in advance of that shoot, because Noah was very focused on that scene for months in advance. It’s obviously brilliantly written and touches on a lot of really honest themes and feelings for Noah, and he prepared rigorously. I worked the scene with him in advance just to discuss the calibration of such a long monologue, because you can’t start out at 10. If you start out at 10 with a speech that long, you’ve got nowhere to go.
The Duffers then directed that scene beautifully, but what I never counted on was how moving the listeners would be. Watching the Duffers’ cut of that scene knocked me out and not only because Noah was so good, but because of Charlie and Sadie and Maya [Hawke, who plays Robin] and all those beautiful actors being so authentically empathetic in that room, both as characters with Will Byers but also as friends with Noah. That double layer of realness to that scene led to some reaction shots that, for me, are as emotional as the speech itself.
I asked Noah about this — that scene felt like it transcended acting because of how close the cast is. Looking back to when you started this a decade ago, has Stranger Things surpassed what you thought it could have ever become?
When you talk about 10 years ago, make no mistake: We did not know what we were starting. We just came together because we thought we could make something really good. We didn’t know if people would watch. We didn’t know it would become popular, and we definitely didn’t know it would launch a phenom and a franchise. I love this about the nature of our bonds — we did it for the right reasons. It wasn’t calculated. It was just creative enthusiasm that brought us to this show, and to stick the landing in the finale season with an episode that was so important to all of us? When you talk about real feelings fueling a fictional scene, in the last 15 minutes of the finale, you have that very deeply. You have scenes that are about these characters, but scenes that also capture the feelings among these actors and all of us who made this show together for almost a decade.
Were you able to experience the series finale as a fan when you watched?
God, yes. Ask the Duffers about the FaceTime from me while I was shooting Star Wars. I watched the finale episode here in London, and it was so moving to me that I didn’t want to just text. I didn’t want to leave a voice note. I needed to convey the visceral emotion that finale inspired in me, so I FaceTimed the brothers. They were driving. I was a sobbing wreck. I’m a little humiliated in retrospect, but they’ll tell you, I’m not even a little bit exaggerating. I held out on the finale. Obviously, I’ve been a part of all of this and have walked a long road together. But when I watched the finale, I was able to experience it as pure audience and as a fan, and it really blew me away.
The Stranger Things franchise is continuing next with the animated spinoff Tales From ‘85.
And more stuff beyond that the Duffers have started to allude to [with the live-action spinoff]. I have so many projects coming up, but nothing takes precedent — nothing is more priority for me than Stranger Things. I made three movies while we’ve made five seasons of Stranger Things, but It has been my North Star and imperative to be there for the show; to be there for the Duffers and for this cast and Netflix, whenever and however Stranger Things needs me, and that’s going to be the law that I live by as long as Stranger Things exists.
What can you tease about Tales From ’85?
I’m excited. You’re not getting a watered-down continuation of the show you’ve watched and loved. You’re getting a different tone, a different visual style. It’s filling in blanks of mythology and timeline that you’ve never gotten in what we call “the mothership,” the original show. The Duffers loved a certain style of ‘80s and ‘90s all-family audience animation and cartoons, and this show is made in the spirit of that. So it’s not “Stranger Things, but animated,” it’s very much its own tone and style.
I’m sure you’ve seen recent headlines asking if Stranger Things is the next Star Wars, and you’re in both worlds. What can you tease about Star Wars: Starfighter?
If I’ve learned anything on Stranger Things, it’s that you can get intimidated by the scale of franchise expectation. But you will lose your way if that’s your focus. I’ve learned the need to stay rooted in character, and themes and relationships on screen. Yes, there’s spectacle and scale, just like Stranger Things. And of course, Star Wars and Starfighter has spectacle and scale and adventure at a level I’ve never done in my whole career. But like Stranger Things, it’s also very much anchored in a human scale character-sized story. I think that if I can balance the epic and the intimate the way the Duffers have with Stranger Things, I’ll make a movie and an original and new Star Wars adventure that can be really satisfying to fans and audiences.
When it comes to what the Duffers are doing next (working on a live-action Stranger Things spinoff that they revealed connects to the Henry Creel rock from the series finale), are you along for that ride, too?
Oh, hell yes. We’ve developed a real brotherhood over a decade. So goes Stranger Things, so goes me. It’s very much the spirit of brotherhood that the Duffers and I have had from day one, and it’s the same spirit of brotherhood that we will take into any extensions of this franchise and storytelling in the future.
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Stranger Things 5 is now streaming on Netflix. Follow along with all of THR’s postmortem coverage.
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