The Duffer Brothers "stopped thinking about the future entirely" during filming for the final season of Stranger Things.

Sibling duo Matt and Ross - who created Netflix's sci-fi horror mega hit series - are preparing to say goodbye to the longrunning show with the fifth and final season launching next month, and they admitted they haven't given much thought to what comes next as they embark on a new deal with Paramount.

Matt told Variety: "I couldn't think about it anymore, because we're just back in working on Stranger Things.

"I've actually stopped thinking about the future entirely."

Ross added: "And we've spent 10 years on this. We're trying to put 100% energy in just making sure we land this plane. So no thought is going elsewhere at the moment."

His brother quipped: "At all. Hopefully Paramount doesn't read this."

There are plans for a Stranger Things spinoff too, and while the Duffers will be "heavily creatively involved", they won't be serving as showrunners with the same level of pressure.

Ross explained: "We'll, hopefully, be writing and directing something new in the meantime, helping shepherd it along."

They still don't know what the next big project will be, but the brothers played down the idea of tackling one of Paramount's existing properties like Star Trak, Transformers, or the newly-acquired rights to the Call of Duty franchise.

Ross said: "I think everyone knows there's not enough original stuff out there right now. Everything is so IP-driven."

When it's come to saying goodbye to Stranger Things, Ross noted how "hard" it was for the cast to get through each take as they struggled with the approaching conclusion.

And his brother pointed out that "each day" was a farewell to someone else on set.

He said: "I'm never going to spend 10 years on something again, I don't think, where you become this much of a family with the people who are working on it.

"It was really hard. Each day was saying goodbye. Each of those actors only had to say goodbye once.

"Ross and I had to do it four different times. Every time I'm like, 'I'm not going to break!' And I broke every time."