The backlash over Stranger Things’s fifth and final season continues. Now more than 110,000 fans have signed a Change.org petition demanding to see “unseen footage” from Season 5, Volume 2.
“I believe [there] was more to the episodes, and we didn’t see [the deleted scenes] either due to Netflix or the team of Stranger Things cutting them,” the Change.org organizer, identified only as Wennii J, writes in the petition. “This has been a long, 10 year-process, and this is what we get. They must have cut out a lot of scenes from Volume 2 and from our loved characters.”
Wennii J believes fans should get Netflix and Stranger Things co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer to take notice by signing the petition, making videos, and getting hashtags trending. (Already, some fans are using “Cutgate” to refer to the alleged tampering of Volume 2.)
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“WE WANT ANSWERS!” Wennii J adds. “It’s important because we waited so long for this season. I believe the fans should have a say in how the series should go. This is why so many of us are disappointed because it didn’t live up to the expectations that was held upon. Everyone is clearly dissatisfied with this [Volume 2]. And also, the amount of clues and information we got from the cast members and interviews are not matching up with the episodes provided. We want Stranger Things to have a legacy [and] not be seen as some show that couldn’t pull though due to [its] bad writing.”
Fans have been circulating a Google document purported to contain details of “entire plot lines and character arcs which have been edited out/changed mid-filming for various reasons.”
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The deleted scenes, according to that Google document, include longer interactions between Will (Noah Schnapp) and Vecna/Henry (Jamie Campbell Bower), a one-on-one basement scene with Will and Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and a fake-out death for Will, and the doc cites quotes from the Stranger Things cast and creatives as evidence.
“Volume 1 was great and had many of the same writers involved as Volume 2,” the author of that Google doc wrote. “Why, all of a sudden, was Volume 2 not only horribly written but poorly paced with several confusing elements and sequences that were only told to us instead of shown? It’s a horrible case of executive meddling.”
In the run-up to the series finale on Wednesday, December 31, fans have also expressed dissatisfaction with the cinematography and special effects of Season 5 and at least one glaring goof.
Stranger Things, Series Finale, Wednesday, December 31, 8/7c, Netflix and Select Theaters
