The Secret To “Stranger Things” Season 4? A ‘Shit Ton’ of Subway Meatball Subs.

“Stranger Things” long-awaited fourth season set Netflix’s record for the biggest debut ever. The show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, discussed its success on WTF with Marc Maron this week. The following is an excerpt from their conversation.

MARON: What makes the new season so special?

MD: Oh, that’s easy. The Subway Meatball Subs.

RD: Yeah, there’s a shit ton of them.

MARON: Really? Why?

MD: Well, the aesthetic benefit goes without saying, but we also discovered a beautiful audio dimension they bring to the table.

RD: They’re so versatile, which is why 100% of our sound effects this season were created with Subway Meatball Subs.

MARON: How does that even work?

MD: We’d smash a Subway Meatball Sub on the ground.

RD: Boink the sub with a hammer.

MD: Smash ’em on a pool table.

RD: Rocket fire the cue ball into a meatball sub as hard as we could.

MD: Slap them a bit and say things like “bad Subway Meatball Sub.”

RD: Rub ’em together like we were trying to start a fire.

MD: We’d wag Subway Meatball Subs at each other in an accusatory fashion.

RD: Run them through a salad spinner.

MD: Take them to the park and push them on a swing.

RD: Place them at the top of the slide and say things like, “come on Subway Meatball Sub, there’s nothing to be afraid of, you can do it!”

MD: Whatever it took.

MARON: That’s wild. Was it expensive? It sounds expensive.

RD: Extremely expensive.

MD: We went through over 125,000 Subway Meatball Subs.

RD: We did a lot of experimenting, and each sub was only good for a single take.

MD: You could hear if it wasn’t fresh.

MARON: I take it Subway was a sponsor?

RD: Oh no. They refused.

MD: But we have a great relationship with Netflix, so they were willing to spend the money on name-brand meatball subs. They trust our vision.

MARON: That trust paid off. You had 286.7 million hours of viewing time, which was a new record for Netflix.

MD: We’re super proud of that.

RD: Yeah, we beat “Bridgerton,” which is ironic.

MARON: How so?

RD: Well, we were extremely worried that the Subway Meatball Subs would make this season way too horny, which is “Bridgerton’s” bread and butter, and we didn’t want to step on any toes.

MD: But we got lucky. The Subway Meatball Subs added just the right amount of horny, and not too much.

RD: And not too little.

MARON: Uh, I see.

[Later in the episode the brothers discussed the decision to release Season 4 in two volumes.]

MARON: Why didn’t you release the entire season at once?

MD: It was out of our control.

MARON: Oh wow, so that was a Netflix decision?

RD: No, a Subway decision.

MARON: Huh?

MD: They cut off our supply.

RD: They said we were causing a “global shortage of Subway Meatball Subs.”

MARON: Oh shit. So what happened?

MD: We threw on some fake mustaches from the props department and got in line, but they recognized us. So we had to get Netflix’s lawyers involved.

RD: While they were fighting it out with the Subway lawyers, we started editing what would become Volume 1.

MARON: How’d the law battle play out?

MD: We’re not allowed to get into specifics, but let’s just say Netflix went ahead and opened the vault.

RD: And their Subway punch cards!

[The brothers laughed for a solid minute.]

MD: But seriously, it allowed us to double down on the Subway Meatball Subs.

RD: And it paid off.