'Stranger Things' Season 5: Everything We Know
The Netflix hit is coming back for one final season this year.
Spoilers for Stranger Things season 4, volume 2 ahead. After nine years of '80s adventures (minus a three-year pandemic delay), we face the end of Stranger Things's run. The Netflix paranormal hit's horrifying fourth season aired to major success—becoming one of the streaming service's most popular shows of all time—in 2022, and the Duffer Brothers have confirmed that we have one season left with the Hawkins gang. So what will come next for a show that has given us a new iconic sci-fi villain (and the resurgence of Kate Bush)? Read on for what we know so far about Stranger Things season 5.
Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in a first-look image from Stranger Things season 5.
Is season 5 the last season of 'Stranger Things?'
The Duffer Brothers revealed that their series would get a fifth and final season in a letter to fans published in February 2022.
"Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things," Matt and Ross Duffer wrote. "At the time, we predicted the story would last four or five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but—as you'll soon see for yourselves—we are now hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last."
While the rest of the letter focused on the reveal that season 4 would be super-sized, executive producer Shawn Levy explained the creative team's reasoning in an US Weekly interview, saying that the Duffers have been contemplating a thoughtful, fully-formed ending since the show began.
"We don’t want to be one of those shows that outstays its welcome and is flailing while it searches for a way to stick the landing," he said. "We really want to stick the landing. I feel like we have been able to do that every season and we also want to do it for the series."
THAT'S A WRAP ON STRANGER THINGS. See you in 2025. pic.twitter.com/DWkIwMMOJ3December 20, 2024
When will 'Stranger Things' season 5 be released?
Stranger Things season 5 will be released in 2025 in three parts. Netflix confirmed the release schedule during its Tudum event in May 2025. The first batch of episodes will drop on Wednesday, November 26 (the day before Thanksgiving), the second batch will arrive on Christmas Day, and the finale will air on New Year's Eve. So, plan to gather the family around the TV on your holiday downtime (or to escape them for your binge-watch!). However, it's unconfirmed how many episodes drop each date, but only the final installment will be saved for December 31.
To get fans excited, the streaming service shared a handful of first-look photos to coincide with the news, as well as a teaser featuring old and new footage. (More on that below!)
Netflix first announced that the final installment would air in 2025 on Stranger Things Day, or November 6 (a.k.a. the day Will disappeared to the Upside Down). The streamer also announced around that time that filming had wrapped by sharing the news on X (formerly Twitter). The post read, "THAT'S A WRAP ON STRANGER THINGS. See you in 2025," and included a series of heartwarming, very bitchin' photos of the cast in their typical '80s looks on set. You can check out the shots below.
Filming for the series' final season took longer than originally expected. Despite pre-production initially starting in August 2022 (and completing the first episode's script by November of that year), the 2023 Hollywood strikes delayed the show's filming. Production didn't begin until 2024, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Throughout production, Netflix tided fans over with a few updates. In July, the streamer surprised fans by sharing a dispatch-from-filming video. The clip shared an early look at the entire set and some highly-anticipated scenes (like one with the show's core foursome back together). Several of the hit's stars also make cameos in costume; early in the clip, Noah Schnapp shares that he thinks this will be “the best season yet."
Is there a trailer for 'Stranger Things' season 5?
Hell yeah! Netflix dropped the full-length Stranger Things season 5 trailer in late October, one month before the premiere date. The cast and crew have been hinting for years that the final episodes will be epic, and it looks like they're right.
The visual begins in the Upside Down, as ominous and disturbing as ever, where Vecna says, "At long last, we can begin." What he's beginning remains unclear. In Hawkins, the military continues to occupy the town and has it under lockdown, which leads our gang to decide to take matters into their own hands. As Mike instructs the group, they need to find Vecna and "end this once and for all." It appears that will amount to some dramatic battles in downtown Hawkins and the other dimension, Lucas taking Max, still in a coma, out of the hospital, Eleven putting the full capacity of her skills to the test, and more.
Perhaps most interestingly, the trailer teases that Will's continued ties to the Upside Down are finally going to reach a boiling point. "William, you are going to help me one last time," Vecna says to him, while drawing him closer.
If you're eager for more footage, a teaser also arrived in July. The two-and-a-half-minute clip follows the aftermath of Vecna's attacks in season 4, with Max still in a coma years later and the gang preparing to face off against him. There are more explosions than ever, flame-throwers, a bad-ass Linda Hamilton coming to save the day, high radio and electric frequencies, and, by the end, Vecna's ominous return as he says, "Found you."
As expected, everyone is game to try to settle this once and for all: "Wherever this blood leads, I need you to fight one last time. Let’s end this, kid," Hopper says to Eleven.
Netflix has shared a few other videos. In early June, the streamer shared a date announcement video compiling scenes from earlier seasons and new shots of Joyce speaking with Will about what happened on the fateful day he disappeared. "I think about that night all the time—the night it came for you, the night all of this started," she says to her son, who replies, "Everything changed. We failed, but we need to be ready."
Then, the teaser offers a first look at some of the upcoming action: the gang preparing to battle dark forces, Vecna growing stronger, government officials preparing to fight, and Will looking off into the distance as he shrieks, "Run!" in complete terror. November (and December) can't come soon enough!
The episode title teaser is also available. In order, the eight episodes in season 5 will be called: “The Crawl,” “The Vanishing of _____,” “The Turnbow Trap,” “Sorcerer,” “Shock Jock,” “Escape From Camazotz,” “The Bridge” and “The Rightside Up.” “The Vanishing of _____,” is the only title that appears incomplete, as the teaser blurred the name of whoever or whatever is "vanishing," presumably because of how much of a spoiler it is. Time to start theorizing!
Are there any new cast members in 'Stranger Things' season 5?
Just because we're about to say goodbye to Hawkins, it doesn't mean that Stranger Things will skip the chance to make its ensemble cast even bigger. Back in June 2023, Netflix revealed that an action legend will be joining the final season, with The Terminator star Linda Hamilton joining the hit in an undisclosed returning role.
Deadline also reported three other new stars who will appear in season 5: Evil Dead Rise actor Nell Fisher, Waco: The Aftermath's Alex Breaux, and newcomer Jake Connelly.
A first-look image at Mike (Finn Wolfhard) in season 5.
How long are the 'Stranger Things' season 5 episodes?
Based on the teaser trailer Netflix shared in November, Stranger Things season 5 features eight episodes—and there's reason to believe they'll be lengthy. According to cast member Maya Hawke, the forthcoming installment will continue the series' trend of super-long episodes. Season 4 was the first installment that had feature-length episodes, with the finale going for a full 140 minutes. Hawke confirmed on Penn Badgley's podcast "Podcrushed" that the massive episode length is here to stay.
"We’re making, basically, eight movies," she said during her June 2024 appearance, adding that the final season’s episodes are "very long."
"Our showrunners, Matt and Ross [Duffer], take a lot of responsibility," she added. "They have an amazing team of writers, but they’re very involved. They write a lot and they are very intense and serious about the quality of the continued writing, and so it takes a long time to write each season, and a long time to shoot them."
This update is a change of plan from back in July 2022, when co-creator Matt Duffer said that he expects the season 5 episodes to be shorter. He had hinted that the Hawkins kids would be getting straight to the action in the final season, which could have led to shorter episodes.
"The only reason we don’t expect to be as long is, [in season 4], if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery," Duffer said at the time, on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast. "You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they’re struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve’s trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in season 5]."
Matt confirmed that there will be one "2.5-hour episode," though, at the very least.
As for the start, the creators shared that the season premiere will hit the ground running, though they didn't say whether it will start immediately after season 4's final scene.
"Characters are already going to be in action, they’re already going to have a goal and a drive, and I think that’s going to carve out at least a couple hours and make this season feel really different," he said. "I’m sure the wrap-up will be a lot longer, it’s going to be ‘Return of the King’-ish with, like, eight endings."
Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) visits Max (Sadie Sink) in the hospital, as her fate remains unknown in season 5.
What is 'Stranger Things' season 5 about?
Netflix has shared an official season 5 synopsis: "The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished—his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming—and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone—the full party—standing together, one last time."
Steve (Joe Keery) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) in season 5.
Where is 'Stranger Things' season 5 set?
Season 4 saw the kids and adults of the Hawkins crew split up across three locations, with the final battle against Vecna's hive mind taking place from the Creel House in Hawkins, a pizza parlor in Nevada, and a Russian prison (not to mention the Upside Down). The finale saw all of our characters finally reuniting in Hawkins, and the Duffers say season 5 will stay local.
"It's mostly in Hawkins, and there's a lot obviously in the Upside Down," Matt Duffer told Collider.
"I think one of the things that's exciting about season 5 is [that] season 4 was interesting to us because everyone was scattered to the winds," he continued. "That's what was unique about it. But this is about everyone finally coming back. Coming back together, coming back to Hawkins. Hopper is back in Hawkins. The original group [is] back together—the original group of boys plus Eleven. The OG group. There's something interesting to re-explore some of the season one dynamics again, except on this grander scale."
Will (Noah Schnapp) in season 5.
Will there be a 'Stranger Things' spin-off after the final season?
Though it hasn't been announced or confirmed by Netflix, the Duffers have been working on a Stranger Things spin-off for a while. Even in the letter announcing season 5 as the final season, the creators hinted that "there are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes."
During a Variety interview, when asked if they would wait to work on the new series after season 5 is complete, the creators said they probably would.
"There's a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel," Ross Duffer said. "I think actually we're going to start delving into that soon as we're winding down and finishing these visual effects, Matt and I are going to start getting into it."
"The reason we haven't done anything is just because you don't want to be doing it for the wrong reasons, and it was just like, 'Is this something I would want to make regardless of it being related to Stranger Things or not?' And definitely," Matt added. "Even if we took the Stranger Things title off of it, I'm so, so excited about it. But it is not… It's going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix."
Though the duo says the spin-off will be different than what fans expect, they told Variety that one person with an intimate knowledge of the show was able to guess.
"We do have an idea for a spinoff that we’re super excited about… but we haven’t told anyone the idea yet, much less written it. We think everyone—including Netflix—will be surprised when they hear the concept because it’s very, very different. But somehow Finn Wolfhard—who is one crazy smart kid—correctly guessed what it was going to be about. But aside from Finn, no one else knows!"
The gang will have to try to stop Vecna once and for all in season 5.
What has the 'Stranger Things' cast and crew said about season 5?
Although the cast has been tight-lipped about season 5, some have teased a little bit of information. Jamie Campbell Bower, for example, told The Hollywood Reporter that he thinks there's a chance for the good guys to beat this uber-powerful Big Bad in the final season.
"There’s always an opportunity for the good guys to win," he told the outlet. "I think in this case, they’d have to be way smarter than they have been thus far because Henry is not one to forget and not one to let things slide."
In an interview with Vulture, Sadie Sink shared her thoughts on Max's mental state in the upcoming season, if (or more likely, when) she emerges from the coma.
"I think she’s at a place where she now really wants to fight. In episode 9, when she gave that monologue, she was ready to go and she was ready to make that ultimate sacrifice," she told the outlet. "She knew that there was no way she was going to make it out alive, but the fact that she was willing to make that sacrifice was brutal and heartbreaking. If she’s still out there, she definitely has a lot of rage and a lot of fight in her. So that’s where my hope lies in Max for season 5."
Noah Schnapp has also given his thoughts on season 5, and even confirmed a popular fan theory. In an interview with Variety, the actor said that Will is gay and that the show has been slowly building a storyline about his sexuality since season 1.
"Obviously, it was hinted at in Season 1: It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends? Now that he’s gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it’s 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike," he told the outlet.
He added that the Duffers told him that for season 5, "they’re going to focus more on Will and build that storyline."
"There’s so many different things they have to address. Obviously, we hope for a coming out scene, and I also want to see them address this connection to the Mind Flayer and how that fits into the world. And I’ve always been wondering, why was Will the first victim and the first one captured? I just want to see it all tie in and all work out. So I’m excited to see what happens," he said.
