- New documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 premieres globally on Netflix January 12
- Aims to “give an inside look at the years of effort and craft that went into the final installment of the Duffer Brothers’ generation-defining series”
- ‘Conformity gate’ theory has fans convinced episode 9 is coming, though this hasn’t been verified
Whether you loved or loathed the Stranger Things season 5 finale, Netflix‘s new documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 all but confirms that the fan ‘conformity gate’ theory doesn’t have legs.
As the Duffer Brothers said in a statement: “Growing up in Durham, North Carolina, we dreamed of becoming filmmakers – but Hollywood felt impossibly far away. Everything changed when we watched the behind-the-scenes documentaries for The Lord of the Rings – on-the-ground films that showed the real nuts and bolts of how a massive production actually gets made. We saw how stressed Peter Jackson was and thought: yep, that’s the dream.
“With the decline of physical media, that kind of behind-the-scenes storytelling has largely disappeared. We wanted to bring it back. One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things Season 5 – beautifully captured and directed by Martina Radwan – is our attempt to do just that. If you love Stranger Things, or if you’re simply curious how a major Hollywood production comes to life, this one’s for you.”
Clearly, this special is absolutely unmissable for any Stranger Things fan. But the fact it exists (and is dropping in the next few days) completely discounts the growing ‘conformity gate’ theory. If you don’t know what that is, I’ve got you covered.
Why the new Stranger Things season 5 documentary isn’t good news for ‘conformity gate’
In a nutshell, ‘conformity gate’ means that Stranger Things fans are expecting episode 9 to drop in the future because they don’t believe what we saw in the season 5 finale was actually the ending.
Instead, they think it was a ‘manufactured reality’ made by Vecna that’s being passed off as the end of the show.
this conformity gate theory is INSANEEE, if it doesn’t happen we truly are better writers than the duffers #conformitygate #StrangerThings5 pic.twitter.com/xskLExHXIeJanuary 4, 2026
As you can see, fans have analyzed almost every single frame of the final episode to find ‘conformity’, from the way the cast’s hands are positioned to the use of Dungeons & Dragons figurines. They also believe this alleged ninth episode would drop on January 7, in line with Orthodox Christmas.
The documentary special basically sledgehammers its way through this theory. Not only do we have more confirmed Stranger Things content to binge, but if the Duffer Brothers wanted their final season to be nine episodes, they’d have made it nine episodes.
We’ve already had a painstakingly long three-part release schedule over the last two months, and each of those episodes was well over an hour. As far as I’m concerned, there’s literally nothing left to tell.
If creators or fans want to take this into their own hands, that’s a different story. Just look at Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the non-canon prequel show on Broadway and the West End.
But officially, we should just enjoy and appreciate One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 for what it is…. it really will be our last chance to binge the main series as it is.
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jasmine.valentine@futurenet.com (Jasmine Valentine)
