“Stranger Things” and “Wednesday” are Netflix’s top two most popular English shows, but it’s been at least two and a half years since the last season of the shows. With both set to release another season in 2025, fans have noticed the long increase in production wait times for shows.
Many shows on streaming platforms fall into this same cycle, with shows like “The Umbrella Academy,” “Arcane,” “Euphoria,” “Squid Game” and “Black Mirror” all taking over two-year hiatuses between content. Netflix has recently gotten the majority of the attribution to this pattern, as six of the seven mentioned shows are Netflix originals.
Alesha Morrison, a freshman studying pre-veterinary, said the waits between seasons are uncomfortably long.
“I feel like any more than a year and a half or two-year gaps are ridiculous,” Morrison said.
The cause of the hiatuses is partially a result of the SAG-AFTRA’s union strike in 2023, which prevented actors from working, mixed with the Writer’s Guild of America strike the same year. With those two unions protesting, essentially nothing could be filmed or produced for nearly a year.
The pandemic also largely contributed to production delays, as studios were entirely shut down for the majority of 2020 and 2021. The number of remote workers in the motion picture industry went from 11% pre-pandemic up to nearly 40% during 2021. The number remained high even after the pandemic, with 30% being remote in 2022. The difficulties from COVID-19 and strikes the following year essentially created three years in a row of delays.
“Stranger Things,” one of the more well-known of the delayed shows, released its first season in 2016. With the last season’s 2025 release, the show’s five seasons span over nine years. Viewers struggle with the continuity of the show since the actors who started filming as 12 and 13-year-olds are now in their early 20s.
“I think they're losing a lot of the appeal and a lot of the audience with how long it's been because the kids started as kids, and now they're adults,” Morrison said. “It kind of messes up the show a little bit.”
For Lia Webb, a freshman studying psychology, the long waits can cause her to forget about the shows during the gaps between content.
“I'll definitely take a break and stop thinking about (shows) for a while and then find something else that's more relevant,” Webb said.
Some shows have attempted to combat the aging of actors with setting changes. “Euphoria,” a 2019 show centered around high schoolers, featured a 22-year-old Zendaya and a 21-year-old Sydney Sweeney in its cast.
With Season Three beginning filming this year, the majority of the “Euphoria” cast are in their late twenties. Many fans consider them too old to portray high schoolers. The third season of the show will take place years after the original two seasons, with aged-up characters, according to Variety.
The long waits do not benefit the actors, as some “Stranger Things” cast members have shared sentiments about being involved in long contracts. Millie Bobby Brown, who stars as Eleven in the show, expressed her relief at ending the show during an interview with Glamour Magazine.
“‘Stranger Things’ takes up a lot of time to film and it’s preventing me from creating stories that I’m passionate about,” Brown said. “So I’m ready to say, ‘Thank you, and goodbye.’”
The long hiatuses don’t always correlate to curbed interest, however. “Squid Game,” a show that took over three years between Seasons One and Two, earned nearly as many views as its first season with its second season. The show has now become the third most viewed season of a show on Netflix.
Webb said sometimes shows releasing episodes too quickly can cause the opposite problem.
“I feel like they come out fast but it's not good,” Webb said.
Long waits do now always equal quality products. In the case of “The Umbrella Academy,” a show featured on Netflix that had a wait of over two years, the final season had only six episodes in comparison to the ten episodes of the past three seasons. The final season also received a 51% score on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the 91% score of the second season.
Overall, trends show that wait times between seasons have been getting longer, and viewers have negative opinions regarding the recent waits.
