Stranger Things petition goes viral as 300,000 fans demand release of "unseen footage"

29 December 2025, 14:24

By Katie Louise Smith

Mr. Clarke actor Randy Havens has shut down unsubstantiated claims that hours worth of story has been cut from the final season.

Stranger Things 5 Volume 2 gave us some mind-blowing answers to several of the show's major long-running questions but some fans on social media aren't happy with how certain things appear to be panning out.

In fact, there's now a large group who believe hours worth of story has been removed from the show.

In the wake of the theory, a change.org petition has been launched urging Netflix to release "unseen footage" from season 5. The description reads: "I believe [there] was more to the episodes and we didn’t see them either due to Netflix or the team of Stranger Things cutting them."

"The amount of clues and information we got from the cast members and interviews are not matching up with the episodes provided," it continues.

Almost 300,000 people have signed the petition and now, one of the actors from the show has taken to social media to shut it down.

• Read more: Stranger Things' Will Byers coming out scene was different in the original draft
• Read more: Stranger Things 5 finale episode runtime confirmed

Did Netflix cut out scenes from Stranger Things 5?

There is no confirmation or solid facts to suggest that Netflix have removed scenes from Stranger Things. Nor is there any confirmation that large chunks of the plot were removed from the season.

The theory, which has now gone massively viral, appears to stem from disgruntled fans who believe entire character arcs and plot lines have been cut from the Volume 2 episodes. Fans claim that 'information' was sent to them by "reliable sources".

According to conversations on social media, the majority of the theories centre around scenes involving Will Byers and Mike Wheeler, with fans arguing that certain moments in the show between them (and other characters) 'don't make sense'.

Others have pulled up behind-the-scenes images of the cast that don't appear to correlate to scenes in the show.

Several claims about the 'leaked' episode runtimes have also emerged online, with fans claiming that they back up their theories about scenes being removed.

Graphics showing episode runtimes lasting longer than what has been released on Netflix have recently been shared on X/Twitter as 'evidence'. However, these purported runtime 'leaks' were never confirmed to be true and are entirely made up.

Ross Duffer even shut them down himself, and later confirmed the official runtimes for each episode on his official Instagram account.

Stranger Things' Duffer brothers have not filmed multiple endings

The 'unseen footage' theory has now reached members of the Stranger Things cast, including actor Randy Havens.

Randy, who plays the legend himself Mr. Clarke, took to his Instagram Story yesterday (Dec 28) to shut down the fast growing theory.

"There is no Snyder Cut of the show, please don’t believe everything some random a** tells you on the internet," he wrote, referring to Zack Snyder’s Justice League which was released after fans successfully petitioned for his original version to be shown.

Other fans on social media have called out the petition and the theories, saying that fans are spreading "blatant misinformation".

Netflix and the Duffer brothers have yet to address the whole thing. We'll update this article if they do.

Read more about Stranger Things 5 here:

• Stranger Things' Duffer brothers say they have not filmed multiple endings
• Will's powers in Stranger Things 5 explained in full
• Stranger Things' Noah Schnapp says he'd still be closeted if Will wasn't gay in the show
• Here's why Stranger Things 5 recast Holly Wheeler with new actress
• Where to watch Stranger Things The First Shadow online

WATCH: Stranger Things' Finn, Caleb & Gaten vs. 'The Most Impossible Stranger Things Quiz'

Stranger Things' Finn, Caleb & Gaten vs. 'The Most Impossible Stranger Things Quiz'

WSQK The Squawk: The Stranger Things radio station that's always turned up to 11! Listen now on Global Player, thanks to Netflix UK.