‘Stranger Things’ Writers Deny Old Episodes Are Being Re-Edited, Including That Creepy Jonathan Scene

Zack Sharf
·3 min read
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The “Stranger Things” writers’ room is refuting recent reports that older episodes of the Netflix series are being re-edited years after the fact. The official Twitter account for the show’s writers posted the following message: “PSA: no scenes from previous seasons have ever been cut or re-edited. And they never will be.”

Reports surfaced earlier in July that Netflix had re-edited a scene in the show’s first scene to make the character Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) appear less “pervy.” The scene in question found Jonathan photographing Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) without her knowledge. Some fans believed that Jonathan continued to take photos of Nancy as she undressed, which is not how the scene is cut in the episode, thus leading to theories that the streamer was re-editing previous content.

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When a fan responded to the “Stranger Things” writers’ room PSA by asking, “So that also counts for the Jonathan spying on Nancy scene in S01, as many people believe?” the group responded, “Yes.” Clearly, fans were misremembering the Jonathan scene.

The whole notion of “Stranger Things” being re-edited was first introduced by creators Matt and Ross Duffer in an exclusive interview with Variety. Fans noticed that an episode in Season 4 took place on March 22, but nowhere in the episode did anyone mention that date is Will Byers’ birthday, which had been confirmed in an episode years prior. The Duffer brothers admitted they forgot about the date and offered a solution to the gaffe.

“We’re thinking his new birthday is going to be May 22, because ‘May’ can fit in Winona’s mouth [in the Season 2 scene where Joyce says the date of Will’s birthday],” Matt Duffer said. “So that would be us George Lucas-ing the situation.”

Matt added in a follow-up interview with Variety, “We have George Lucas’d things also that people don’t know about.”

“George Lucas-ing” refers to the “Star Wars” creator’s frequent tweaks to his movies after they’ve been released. Matt Duffer’s comments opened up the door for speculation on what the creators had re-edited in the show. While the writers’ room denies any re-cuts are being made, the show’s lead editor Dean Zimmerman recently confirmed to Variety that updates are being made on “Stranger Things 4.” The full season has been out for three weeks now, but the editors are still updating certain VFX shots because the Duffer brothers want the show to be as perfect as possible.

The first four seasons of “Stranger Things” are now streaming. The series will return for a fifth and final season.

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