Netflix reportedly wants to keep movies in theaters for just 17 days after it buys Warner Bros.

In a report from Deadline on the Stranger Thing Season 5 finale, which made $25 million in theaters after it released at the same time theatrically as it did on Netflix, Hollywood was said to be worried about what the streamer considers to be “industry-standard windows” before movies are made available on its platform.

And then the bombshell:

Sources have told Deadline that Netflix have been proponents of a 17-day window which would steamroll the theatrical business, while circuits such as AMC believe the line needs to be held around 45 days.

It’s worth noting this isn’t confirmation that Netflix will settle on a 17-day window for Warner Bros. movies if and when its deal is approved. The theater companies may end up negotiating a lengthy window, perhaps somewhere between 45 days and the 17 days Netflix reportedly is a fan of. But what’s clear is that there will be a great deal of tension within Hollywood as this is all worked out, with Netflix’s priority — as you’d expect — bolstering streaming.

If Netflix does force through a 17-day window, it could affect everything from James Gunn's DC Universe movie, Man of Tomorrow (July 9, 2027), to The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (December 17, 2027). Then there's Matt Reeves' The Batman: Part 2, which is due out October 1, 2027, and Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, due out March 26, 2027. How would the likes of James Gunn, Andy Serkis, Matt Reeves and other directors of Warner Bros. movies react to their work having less than three weeks in theaters before hitting Netflix?

The $82.7 billion Netflix / Warner Bros. deal has sparked a tough response from some members of Congress, and it is expected to face significant scrutiny under antitrust laws. Meanwhile, at least one HBO Max subscriber has already sued Netflix, claiming the deal threatens to reduce competition in the U.S. subscription video-on-demand market. Warner Bros.-owned streaming platform HBO Max includes everything from Game of Thrones to Harry Potter, James Gunn's DC Universe to Barbie, and its content is expected to be added to Netflix if and when the deal goes through.

After its announcement, Netflix sent subscribers an email of reassurance amid concern over potential price rises. The email — reviewed by IGN — promised subscribers that nothing was changing “today,” and confirmed that HBO Max and Netflix would continue to operate separately until the deal closes. It did not rule out future price rises, but did promise that current membership plans would remain in place at least until the deal goes through. As for when that will be, Netflix said it expects to close the transaction in 12-18 months — so, at the earliest December 2026, but it could be as late as summer 2027.

In an investor call attended by IGN, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos struck a confident tone when asked about the deal’s chance of success. "We're highly confident in the regulatory process," he said. "This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, it's pro-creator, it's pro-growth.”

As part of the same call, Sarandos said Netflix would continue to release Warner Bros. movies in theaters for now, though expected theatrical release windows to shorten over time to become "more user friendly."

"We've released about 30 films into theaters this year, so it's not like we have got this opposition to movies into theaters," Sarandos said. "My pushback has been mostly in the fact of the long, exclusive windows that we don't think are that user friendly."

"I wouldn't look at this as a change in approach for Netflix movies, or for Warner movies for that matter," Sarandos continued. "I think over time the windows will evolve to be much more consumer friendly, to be able to meet the audience where they are, quicker. All those things we'd like to do. But I'd say right now you should count on everything that is planned as going to the theaters through Warner Bros., will continue to go to the theaters through Warner Bros."

Last month, Rian Johnson expressed frustration at the limited theatrical release of his new Benoit Blanc Netflix film, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Netflix released Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery in theaters on November 26, in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, before releasing it on Netflix itself on December 12. But it only released in “select” theaters, as opposed to nationwide — something that left the Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer and director unimpressed.

Meanwhile, Avatar director James Cameron has said Netflix buying Warner Bros. would be a “disaster.”

“Sorry, Ted [Sarandos], but geez,” he said on The Town podcast. “Sarandos has gone on the record saying theatrical films are dead. ‘Theatrical is dead. Quote, unquote.’” Indeed, Cameron remains unconvinced that Netflix would truly commit to any meaningful theatrical distribution if it expanded. “It’s sucker bait," he said. "‘We’ll put the movie out for a week or 10 days. We’ll qualify for Oscar consideration.’ See, I think that’s fundamentally rotten to the core. A movie should be made as a movie for theatrical, and the Academy Awards mean nothing to me if they don’t mean theatrical. I think they’ve been co-opted, and I think it’s horrific.”

That said, Cameron isn't opposed to Netflix playing the game if it actually, well, plays the game. “They should be allowed to compete if they put the movie out for a meaningful release in 2,000 theaters for a month,” Cameron noted.

One report has claimed Netflix is particularly keen to obtain Warner Bros.' vast content library as the streamer ramps up its potential to offer AI-generation tools and content in the future.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Stranger Things Season 5 finale epilogue and its end credits were inspired by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, creators the Duffer brothers have revealed.

Warning! Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 8, The Rightside Up, follow:

Stranger Things ends with Season 5 Episode 8, dubbed The Rightside Up, and an epilogue set 18 months after the events that showed the destruction of the Upside Down, the death of Vecna, the apparent death of Eleven, and the rescue of the kidnapped children.

We see relatively happy endings for pretty much all the main characters as they move on with their lives, kicking off with the core characters’ graduation from Hawkins High School. The show comes to a close with the end of the Dungeon and Dragons campaign that kicked off the Netflix series nine years ago, and the passing of the torch to a new generation of D&D fans made up of Holly Wheeler, Derek Turnbow, and more.

A decent chunk of the final episode’s 2-hour 8-minute runtime is devoted to this epilogue, which even finds room for a successful marriage proposal from David Harbour’s Jim Hopper to Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers. Fans are then treated to end credits that show famous scenes as D&D illustrations, characters in the style of D&D character profiles, maps of locations from the show, and a final image showing Stranger Things as a D&D players manual.

the ending credits was so cool though #StrangerThings5 pic.twitter.com/63rHUdpFMD

— clueified 🤍 (@clueified) January 1, 2026

The epilogue and the end credits were inspired by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Matt and Ross Duffer told Deadline.

“We thought about [The Lord of the Rings] Return of the King a lot, just in terms of the length of the epilogue,” Matt Duffer said. “I always defend the Return of the King epilogue, but I’m one of those hardcore Lord of the Rings fans, to the point where I’ve watched all extended editions in a row on a single day. If you do that, the epilogue feels absolutely perfect and not long at all. In fact, if it felt shorter, it would feel absolutely distressing.

“I think, Stranger Things, if you watch Season 5 all the way through, it’s going to feel great. You just want to spend extra time with these characters. Anyway, that was sort of the reference for the epilogue. Then we love the credits at the end of Return of the King. So that was the initial idea, and they were these very simple illustrations.”

And on the end credits, Ross Duffer confirmed: “we wanted to be able to pay tribute to our cast and how much they’ve grown through the years. Obviously, it’s not to say the whole show was a D&D campaign. It was just a way to pay tribute to everyone and also let the audience, hopefully, take in this journey that they’ve been on for nine years.”

If you’ve watched The Return of the King you’ll know what the Duffers are talking about here. Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy ends with an epilogue set four years after the hobbits return to the Shire. Frodo leaves Middle-earth for the Undying Lands with Bilbo, Gandalf, and the remaining Elves. He gives Sam the Red Book of Westmarch, detailing their adventures, bids farewell to Sam, Merry, and Pippin, and departs. A saddened Sam returns home and is comforted by his family.

As for the end credits, The Return of the King shows the main characters in illustrative form, also as a goodbye following their extensive adventures.

We've got plenty more on Stranger Things, including the Duffer brothers explaining what they were going for with the Season 5 finale and Eleven's ending, and first details on the live-action spinoff.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The creators of Stranger Things have responded to a conspiracy theory that claims there exists a ‘Snyder Cut’ of Season 5 Volume 2 amid a petition with nearly 400,000 signatures.

Earlier this week, Stranger Things actor Randy Havens, who plays school teacher Mr. Clarke, pushed back on claims there is a secret 'Snyder cut' of Season 5 Volume 2, as a petition calling on Netflix and the show's creators the Duffer brothers to respond garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures online.

Ahead of the Stranger Things Season 5 finale on New Year’s Eve, Havens appeared to respond to an unverified, fan-made Google Doc detailing allegedly shortened storylines that had gained attention on social media. The Change.org petition that calls on Netflix to release the alleged “unseen footage” has over 378,000 signatures, at the time of this article’s publication.

The most-liked comment on the petition comes from someone who seems convinced that footage was cut from Season 5 Volume 2 for nefarious reasons. “We have been waiting since 2022 to see this last season,” they wrote. “To be robbed of scenes by Netflix which really could have gelled the show all together is absolutely unacceptable, and I speak on behalf of all fans that we have been betrayed for the show we love. We don’t sit down and do nothing, we need to show the Duffer brothers, Netflix, and especially Shawn Levy. We want our full episodes, we want the scenes which change everything. We want our show back.”

Stranger Things fans have slammed the petition and the Google Doc that appears to have inspired it, while praising Havens for hitting back on social media. Now, in a Variety interview, the Duffer brothers insisted the Google Doc is “obviously… not a real thing,” confirmed no scenes were cut from Season 5, and denied accusations of interference from Netflix.

“I don’t think there’s a single cut scene in the entire season,” Ross Duffer said, before Matt Duffer added: “The show has just grown so massive. Online, there’s just so much misinformation. Just tons of it. We would be here for hours trying to bat down the stuff that was not true. But at the end of the day, hopefully the work speaks for itself, and it is the show that Ross and I wanted to make. Netflix was, and has always been, incredible. I mean, there’s no interference or direction at all from them on us. They really trust us, and that’s been true from Season 1 on. It’s never changed, even though the show and the size of the audience have grown.”

Meanwhile, Stranger Things has suffered from review bombing after Season 5 Episode 7 met with lower audience scores than the Netflix series has typically seen. While the fifth and final season of Stranger Things had sparked complaints from some fans about the exposition-heavy writing, the varying quality of the actor's performances, and the plot armor some of their characters seemingly enjoy, Episode 7, called ‘The Bridge,’ became the focal point of a vociferous debate that spilled over into review aggregate websites.

Will Byers' coming out scene appears to have fueled this review bombing. In it, Will, played by Noah Schnapp, issues a lengthy monologue in which he tells a gathering of characters that he “doesn’t like girls.” The scene, which takes place as supervillain Vecna applies the finishing touches to his masterplan for world domination, ends with an emotional Will comforted by his friends.

The Duffer brothers were asked about the review bombing in the Variety interview, and explained Will’s coming out scene shouldn’t have come as a surprise. “The coming out scene is something we’ve been building to for nine years now,” Ross Duffer said. “It was a really important scene for us, and a really important scene for Noah — not just from a thematic point of view, but also a narrative point of view. This show has always been about our characters overcoming evil, and in order to overcome this evil, Vecna, in so many ways, represents all the dark thoughts and the evil of society. And for our characters to overcome that, it really becomes about embracing themselves, and then also embracing one another and coming together.”

Matt Duffer called the scene “the final step in Will’s journey.” He continued: “and Will is, in so many ways, the key to defeating Vecna. Volume 1 is really about self-acceptance, right? I mean, that’s sort of step one. And then step two is Will is talking to Robin — it’s something that he wants to do. He’s trying to figure out how to come out, and he knows that he needs to do that, and that that’s the final step for him. And he finds the courage to be able to do it. And it’s really the ultimate fuck you to Vecna. That was the intention.”

As for the review bombing campaign, Matt Duffer said the creators were not prepared for it. “Because it is, as Ross said, something we’ve been building for a really long time. I always say, Ross and I are many things, but subtle is not one of those things!”

Matt revealed that he’s been texting with Noah Schnapp after the coming out scene aired, “and he’s in a really good place. He’s very proud of the scene, and we’re proud of the scene.”

We've got plenty more on Stranger Things, including the Duffer brothers explaining what they were going for with the Season 5 finale and Eleven's ending, and first details on the live-action spinoff.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

If you’re all caught up on Stranger Things, you’ll be aware of a plot thread left dangling in the Season 5 finale that has to do with a briefcase. It turns out this will be addressed in a live-action Stranger Things spinoff — although there’s no word when.

Warning! Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 8, The Rightside Up, follow:

In the Season 5 finale, we see Henry Creel / Vecna finally face his greatest fear: the traumatic memory of the day he was infected by the Mind Flayer and gained his powers. In this scene set inside Henry’s mind, we finally find out what was inside the briefcase that child Henry opens after bludgeoning its previous owner, an unnamed scientist, to death. Inside is a mysterious rock, which glows with an unknown energy before fusing with Henry. This, we understand, is how Henry became one with the Mind Flayer, and sets in motion all the events of Stranger Things that followed.

Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers have explained the Season 5 finale and its ending, which has sparked much debate among fans.

Warning! Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 8, The Rightside Up, follow:

Stranger Things ends with a definitive wave goodbye to all the central characters except Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, who appears to sacrifice herself to ensure she cannot be used to create super weapons, another Vecna / Henry, or another bridge between our world and The Abyss.

18 months after that traumatic event, we see the central characters meet up for graduation and say their goodbyes. It’s at this point that Mike Wheeler, played by Finn Wolfhard, has a thought: what if Kali Prasad, also known as Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), used her dying breath to create the illusion of Eleven’s death, and an invisibility spell on Eleven herself, leaving her free to escape unseen?

Finn teases this revelation to the Dungeons & Dragons group as their final campaign comes to an end, suggesting Eleven cooked up a plan with Kali to fake her own death, then traveled to a far away small village — bordered by three waterfalls — to live out her days in peace. But this ending is unconfirmed. Finn and the others choose to believe it, and it’s left up to the audience to decide what they choose to believe as Stranger Things finally comes to an end.

So, why did Matt and Ross Duffer decide to leave Eleven’s ending on such an ambiguous note? Netflix published a Q&A with the brothers to accompany the season finale, and in it they explained what they were going for here.

“What we wanted to do was confront the reality of what her situation was after all of this and how could she live a normal life,” Matt Duffer said. “These are the questions that we’ve been posing this season that Hopper just doesn’t even want to think or talk about. Mike’s obviously talked about it a lot, but it’s sort of this fantasy version that would never work. There are two roads that Eleven could take. There’s this darker, more pessimistic one or the optimistic, hopeful one. Mike is the optimist of the group and has chosen to believe in that story.”

Ross Duffer added: “There was never a version of the story where Eleven was hanging out with the gang at the end. For us and our writers, we didn’t want to take her powers away. She represents magic in a lot of ways and the magic of childhood. For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away. We thought it would be beautiful if our characters continued to believe in that happier ending even if we didn’t give them a clear answer to whether that’s true or not. The fact that they’re believing in it, we just thought it was such a better way to end the story and a better way to represent the closure of this journey and their journey from children to adults.”

“And the reality is, if Eleven is out there, the most that they could hope for is a belief that it’s true because they can’t be in contact with her,” Matt concluded. “Everything falls apart if that were the case. So if that’s the narrative, this is really the best way to keep her alive. And it’s about Mike and everyone finding a way to move past what’s happened.”

It sounds like Eleven’s ending will never be resolved, but there is more Stranger Things to come via a spinoff with completely new characters, a new town, and a new mythology. And if you’re now feeling at a loss for what to watch this year, check out The Biggest TV Shows Coming to Every Streaming Service in 2026.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.