Stranger Things season 4 could have been even longer without the pandemic

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said Covid costs were a ‘very expensive burden on the show’

Stranger Things season four could have been even longer were it not for the pandemic, Ted Sarandos has said.

The thriller series returned to Netflix after three years in May, with two more feature-length episodes dropping in July.

However, the streamer’s CEO and CCO Sarandos has admitted that Stranger Things was one of the Netflix shows most affected by Covid-19 costs.

Additional costs due to the virus amounted to between five and 10 per cent of their $17bn (£14.1bn) content spend, Sarandos told Deadline.

“If you did that all again and took that off the top you might even get a couple of extra episodes out of it,” he said.

“[Stranger Things] was probably affected as any 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.”

He continued: “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.”

Stranger Things stars Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp, who play Eleven and Will, recently called out the show over a common complaint regarding its treatment of the characters.

The Duffer brothers defeatedly addressed this criticism in the new podcast.

Meanwhile, the Duffer brothers dashed fans’ hopes over a common wish for season five, while also sharing the alternate fate of a character killed off in season four should they have made it out alive.

Stranger Things is available to stream on Netflix now.