It was intended as a victory lap. On January 12, Netflix released One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, a documentary chronicling the chaotic production of the sci-fi juggernaut’s final season. Instead, a split-second shot of a laptop screen has overshadowed the release, sparking a viral controversy about the role of AI in the show’s writing.
The controversy centers on a scene showing the Duffer Brothers, Matt and Ross, racing to finish the script for the series finale (“The Rightside Up”). In the high-res footage, eagle-eyed viewers spotted a browser window with three tabs displaying the distinctive ChatGPT logo, nestled alongside Reddit and Google Docs.
Within hours, screenshots hit X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, acting as a lightning rod for fans already frustrated by the finale, which aired on New Year’s Eve. Critics had labeled the ending “rushed” and “incomplete,” and the visible tabs offered a convenient explanation: the creators had outsourced their closing act to an algorithm.
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The debate quickly moved to the show’s subreddit, r/StrangerThings, splitting the community between those who saw a betrayal and those who saw a standard workflow.
A user asked in a rapidly growing thread, “Why would you let a moronic glorified chatbot into the thing you are skilled at, and valued for?”
Others argued the “evidence” was merely confirmation bias from disappointed viewers. “I think it’s just easy to believe it was AI cause the finale was not that great,” wrote one. “i personally don’t believe it. AI could have written a more cohesive plot than whatever S5 was”
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Some attempted to find a middle ground, noting that while using AI for dialogue is “wrong,” the screenshot itself was inconclusive. “People refusing to acknowledge that they might not have used it is so weird,” they noted, suggesting the tabs could have been used for basic research or synonym checks rather than generating plot points.
The documentary’s director, Martina Radwan, addressed the fervor in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter yesterday. She denied witnessing any AI generation during her time in the writers’ room, characterizing the process as deeply human.
“No, of course not,” Radwan said when asked if the brothers used AI to write the script. “I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation… People think ‘writers room’ means people are sitting there writing. No, it’s a creative exchange.”
She contextualized the open tabs as part of the digital clutter of modern multitasking, similar to having a phone on the table. “What I find heartbreaking,” she added, “is everybody loves the show, and suddenly we need to pick it apart.”
Whether the tabs were used to generate dialogue or simply to look up 1980s trivia, the damage to the season’s legacy may already be done. For a show built on nostalgia, Stranger Things now finds itself inextricably linked to the anxieties of the future.
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