90s film legend comes out of retirement for Stranger Things season 5

Frank Darabont, the filmmaker behind the acclaimed 1994 movie Shawshank Redemption, has ended his 11-year retirement for Stranger Things season five.

The 64-year-old industry old hand – also behind major titles such as The Green Mile, 1994’s Frankenstein and several Walking Dead episodes – last stepped into the director role in 2013 for the drama series Mob City before starting his well-deserved retirement.

Until now…

As fifth and final Stranger Things season creeps ever closer (set to release in 2025 after a three-year wait) Frank has confirmed he is dusting off his director’s cap and returning to the small screen to helm two episodes of the mammoth Netflix sci-fi fantasy series.

‘What really dragged me out of retirement was that my wife and I really love this show,’ he explained in a new interview.

‘Our content now is so filled with horrible people doing horrible things for greedy reasons but Stranger Things has so much heart. That positivity is something I really responded to.’

And for those hoping this could be the start of a new era for the Oscar-nominated creative, you just might be in luck.

He added to The Daily Beast: ‘Who knows? I haven’t missed the business but I have missed being on set with creative people… It may well be one and done, but we’ve still got time.’

The Emmy-winning series, starring Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard, has spent most of 2024 in production and celebrated the halfway mark in July with a behind-the-scenes teaser video to feed hungry (and impatient) fans.

It saw delays during the Writers Guild of America strikes last year which ground several productions to a halt, but has since got back on track.

Details about the highly-anticipated final season have been kept firmly under wraps, with the Duffer Brothers and various cast members dropping hints from time to time.

In an interview with Forbes, Noah Schnapp confirmed his character Will Byers will be a central focus of the new season.

‘I can just tell you that I’m very very excited for what’s to come. I think they did a great job with Will’s character this season, and beautifully addressed everything they needed to,’ Noah told the publication.

‘The way they closed the show is just perfect – the story started with Will, and it’ll end with Will.’

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Guardian last year, the brothers -Matt and Ross Duffer – spoke about their approach to the finale.

‘We have a huge variety of fans that span a huge age range and I’m sure they have all their own ideas of how they want the show to end. But we’re not consulting social media on this.

‘Then you just hope and pray that it resonates. But it was funny: once we got there, it just felt right and we’re going to go for it!’ Matt explained.

Meanwhile, fans can expect the no doubt explosive final run to be ‘the biggest it’s ever been in terms of scale, with the season four finale seeing our heroic cast of characters scattered everywhere from Indiana to Russia.

‘It has been really fun, because everyone’s back together in Hawkins: the boys and Eleven interacting more in line with how it was in season one.

‘And, yes, there may be spin-offs, but the story of Eleven and Dustin and Lucas and Hopper, their stories are done here. That’s it…’ Matt added.

Although everyone is remaining tight-lipped on the conclusion, the pair did rule out one ending after a wild fan theory that the whole show would turn out to be a larger-than-life dungeon and dragons game.

‘That is correct. That is the ending…. No,’ Matt joked to Metro.co.uk.

‘That would be the equivalent of, “That’s all a dream”. No, I assure you that is not how we’re going to end the show.

‘We’ve known where we’ve been going for a while. And we feel comfortable with it; hopefully, it satisfies everyone. We’ll see,’ Ross added.

As for what to expect from Frank’s episodes – only time will tell exactly how his vision fits into The Upside Down.