If two directors have completely owned the year 2022 for Netflix, they are Shawn Levy and Jason Bateman. Shawn worked as an executive producer and director on the most popular show of the year Stranger Things. And Jason completely blew the minds of people with the final season of Ozark.

Interestingly, these two successful storytellers are great friends in real life, with Shawn even directing Jason in multiple projects. As a result, of their amazing friendship, Shawn appeared on the Smartless podcast in August where he talked about multiple things including how Jason helped save Stranger Things.

How did Jason Bateman help Shawn make Stranger Things?

Jason Bateman’s Smartless podcast is a great platform where the Ozark actor invites his celebrity friends and discusses several topics with them. Earlier this year, in August, Shawn Levy, appeared on the show and had a long conversation with Jason. Among the many things they talked about Stranger Things was bound to come up and Shawn had an interesting thing to share about the inception of the record-breaking show.

While talking about the Netflix Original Shawn mentioned how Stranger Things was born when he was having a conversation with Jason. “Stranger Things is the weird that it started with a conversation with you, Jason,” said The Adam Project director. Moreover, Shawn shared how it was after the failure of the film, This Is Where I Leave You, that he did not want to direct another high-budget show.

But it was Jason’s advice that help him gain courage and take on the blockbuster show. According to Shawn, Jason helped him not to focus on the revenue that a film collects but on the real motive, connecting with people. “The people who are seeing it and who it resonates for, they’re gonna hold on to it,” Jason said to Shawn.

It has been almost six years since the inception of Stranger Things. And now the whole world knows what success the sci-fi show has achieved. And now fans of the series can thank Jason Bateman for it too.