Stranger Things creators reveal they’ve secretly been editing past seasons without viewers noticing

Amanda Whiting
·2 min read

Stranger Things co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer have admitted to editing past seasons of their hit Netflix series without announcing the changes to viewers.

“We have ‘George Lucas-ed’ things also that people don’t know about,” Matt Duffer said in an interview earlier this month, referring to the Star Wars director’s habit of editing his films years after they’d been released.

The Duffer brothers refused to elaborate on which episodes they had altered, though Ross Duffer pointed out that fans could use physical DVD and blu-ray copies to scan for the differences now that the episodes available on Netflix have all been updated.

They also revealed plans to alter an episode from the most recent release – the first volume of season four – to account for an unintended plothole surrounding the date of Will’s birthday.

Matt Duffer said the team may “George Lucas” the season two episode in which Will’s mom (Winona Ryder) reveals that Will’s birthday is 22 March. His new birthday would be 22 May, “because ‘May’ can fit in Winona’s mouth”.

Duffer concluded that the gaffe, which was pointed out by the series’ fans, didn’t make narrative sense for the characters. “It’s too sad,” he told Variety.

Will’s birthday may change (Netflix)
Will’s birthday may change (Netflix)

“But we were talking about it yesterday, and I think we’re going to George Lucas that.”

Ross Duffer confessed that the pair had already made some changes to the visual effects in the season four episodes that were released in May.

“Netflix is — I don’t think they’ve ever allowed people to patch on opening week and even weekend. And we said, ‘Well, why not?’ And he said, ‘Well, it makes us nervous.’ And we’re like, ‘Well, maybe we try it this time.’ And it turned out fine,” Duffer said.

“I’m just glad we’ve turned ‘George Lucas’ into a verb,” he added.

Stranger Things is available to stream on Netflix now.

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