Frank Darabont was thought to have been retired from filmmaking back in 2021. Looks like that’s not the case any longer.

Darabont is reportedly signed on to direct two episodes of the upcoming fifth season of Stranger Things for Netflix. That’s two of the eight total reported episodes for the season. The news comes from InSneider and it’ll be episode three and five of the season.

Frank Darabont is no stranger to making horror and sci-fi movies. He’s only helmed four films in his entire career, but they’re a stacked bunch including The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist, and The Majestic. He also developed The Walking Dead for AMC. He was embattled in a lawsuit over that series with AMC which seemingly blacklisted him. According to Thomas Jane on the Kingcast podcast, he stated that the filmmaker was blacklisted for that lawsuit. Darabont got screwed over by AMC, but he ended up winning almost $200 million from the network.

Darabont has been quiet since then, doing some uncredited script doctoring, and creating the 2013 TNT series Mob City. Apparently the Duffer Brothers really wanted Darabont to work on Stranger Things and they threw him a lifeline to direct some episodes.

Season 5 will mark the final chapters of the popular Netflix sci-fi series. 

“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,” series creators the Duffer Brothers said in a letter to fans in February 2022. “At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four but — as you’ll see for yourselves — we are now hurtling toward our finale.”

The fourth season of Stranger Things premiered back in summer 2022. Netflix and the team planned to begin production of the final season last year; however, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes ultimately delayed the start of filming.

At this time, we only have a few details about what’s in store for season 5. The Duffers hinted that Will (Noah Schnapp) will “come into his own” in this final season, teasing a “full circle” connection to the character’s time in the Upside Down back in season 1. We can also expect to see the return of season 4’s villain Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). And though season 4 ended with Max (Sadie Sink) stuck in a coma following her showdown with Vecna, Sink does appear in the cast photo shared today. So at the very least it seems safe to say she won’t die off-camera and never be seen again.

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