Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | TV | October 8, 2025
The final season of Stranger Things is almost upon us. Netflix is hesitant to end its biggest original series quickly, so it’s dragging these final eight episodes out over three parts. It’s been over three years since the last season. In that time, Millie Bobby Brown got married and welcomed a child, Joseph Quinn became the hottest star of the moment, and Lily Allen kicked David Harbour’s arse to the curb.
Expectations are obviously high for this finale, which will feature all the beloved cast members as well as a new one in the form of the legendary Linda Hamilton. Netflix has spent a lot of money trying to capture the eyeballs of audiences worldwide and they know that they can’t skimp on the conclusion of one of their most popular offerings. But hoo boy, the reported budget here is kind of obscene.
According to Kim Masters, a legendary entertainment reporter over on Puck, Netflix has thrown down $50-60 million per episode. That means that this eight-episode season will have a budget of between $400 and $480 million. To put that in perspective: Citadel, previously ranked as the most expensive TV series ever made, had a reported production budget of $300 million. The first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power had an estimated per-episode cost of $58 million. $480 million is higher than any of the most expensive films ever made.
Look, I get it. This is a very popular show whose ambitions have expanded greatly beyond the relative coziness of that first season. Netflix wouldn’t keep putting money into it if it didn’t believe it was worth the investment. The fourth season was one of the most-viewed programs on the platform, at least according to their own numbers. Budgets are getting bigger and every network, studio, and platform is chasing that IP high into oblivion.
But this still feels really gross, right? That’s so much money for a season of TV. Nobody expects Netflix to give it to charity, but one wonders if their below-the-line workers are getting fairly compensated for all of this. Anyway, I think most major blockbusters are overpriced, spending money on the wrong things and demanding that overworked and underpaid crew members work to impossible schedules to polish these turds.
At the very least, I think Netflix is betting on something that can’t really pay off. We know that streaming is a money pit where making a profit seems like a questionable fantasy. They’ve put untold billions into creating infinite subscriber growth when such a thing is impossible by design. How many new subscribers are going to sign up for this season? Surely, its fan base has gotten as big as it possibly can? Also, we’re all broke! I’m not upgrading my subscription from paid. I’ll take the ads and go for a tea break when they come on.
Stranger Things Season Five is going to be huge. It’ll be the shock of the year if it underperforms commercially (critically, let’s be honest, standards have fallen.) How will Netflix follow it up? Do the Duffer Brothers have another mega-hit in them? Well, maybe not one that costs this much.
