Posted in: Netflix, Stranger Things, streaming, TV | Tagged: COVID, netflix, season 4, stranger things, Ted Sarandos

Stranger Things 4 May Have Lost "Couple of Extra Episodes" Over COVID

While COVID protocols forced Hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole to refocus on safety, testing also created content-related costs, according to Netflix Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. Speaking with Deadline Hollywood, Sarandos revealed that COVID costs were, on average, about 5/10 percent of its content spend. In 2022, Netflix is spending around $17 billion.

Sarandos on More Stranger Things Episodes

"If you did that all again and took that off the top, you might even get a couple of extra episodes out of it," said Sarandos. "[Stranger Things] was probably affected as any [by COVID] 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. 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."

To be clear, there's no way of actually knowing if Sarandos is right with regards to season four of the Duffer Brothers series losing episodes since other factors could always come into play. Netflix split Stranger Things into two volumes, with the first consisting of seven episodes (premiering on May 27) while the second volume saw the final two episodes (with a combined runtime of over four hours) premiered on July 1st. Season four saw the rise of the Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), who was discovered to be behind much of the threats of the series since the start… from the Demogorgon to the Mind Flayer. In his former life as Henry Creel, the boy was shown drawing the latter two figures before being found by Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) and becoming part of his research into telekinesis. As the original test subject, he was rebranded into One, implanted with an inhibitor chip, and worked as an orderly before the events of the first season took place and his confrontation with Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown).

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