The end is closer than originally thought for Netflix tentpole Stranger Things from the Duffer Brothers.
The fifth and final season of the show has been in the works ever since Part 2 of Season 4 arrived in July 2022, with the writers room for the next season opening August that year. A pandemic delaying Season 4’s arrival and then dual Hollywood strikes pushed Season 5 further than originally planned.
Find everything we know about Stranger Things Season 5 below.
When will Stranger Things Season 5 come out?
As of November 6, 2024, Netflix revealed that the final installment of the show looks to a 2025 release window, not 2026 like previously thought with how long production takes.
Production officially wrapped in December 2024 after it had reached the halfway point in July. Production on the final season kicked off in January 2024.
How many episodes are in Stranger Things Season 5?
Season 5 will have eight episodes. Netflix released the episode titles on Nov. 6, 2024, or Stranger Things Day, which is the date of Will Byers’ original disappearance that started the whole story in Season 1. From the looks of episode 2’s title, someone or something else goes missing this season as well. Episode 1’s title had been previously released.
RELATED: ‘Stranger Things’ Reveals Season 5 Episode Titles, Confirms Release Window
Stranger Things Season 5 Episode Titles
- “The Crawl”
- “The Vanishing Of”
- “The Turnbow Trap”
- “Sorcerer”
- “Shock Jock”
- “Escape From Camazotz
- “The Bridge”
- “The Rightside Up”
“In the fall of 1987, one last adventure begins,” a teaser clip revealed with the episode titles in order.
This confirms a time jump in Season 5 which will pick up more than a year after the events of season 4, which began in March 1986. The Season 4 finale ended with Vecna opening a massive gate to the Upside Down, leading to terrible destruction in Hawkins as the three groups of the original cast members reunited there.
A few other insights into the newly released episode titles, paired with some photos posted on the Stranger Things Instagram accounts as well as that of Ross Duffer, suggest more Dungeons and Dragons lore with the “Sorcerer” title of Episode 4, a radio station hangout — 50,000 WSQK Watts — that potentially ties into “Shock Jock” Episode 5 (which rhymes with The Squawk pictured on a van for the outlet) and the mysterious yet oddly specific term Camazotz, which could either represent the planet from Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, a Mayan bat god from the Underworld or something else entirely. Season 4 introduced some terrifying demi-bat creatures that caused both Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) damage.
Episode 3 likely refers to the Turnbow Land Development & Realty company portrayed in an Instagram post from Ross Duffer.
Will there be new characters in Stranger Things Season 5?
Season 5 will see new cast members Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux joining the cast of Stranger Things.
One possibility is that Fisher will play a more grown-up Holly Wheeler.
Linda Hamilton also announced at 2023’s Tudum: A Global Fan Event that she would be joining the final season as well, but details of her role are being kept under wraps. They join core cast members Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazo, Caleb McLaughlin, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery and Charlie Heaton.
Later additions Sadie Sink, Brett Gelman, Maya Hawke, Jamie Campbell Bower and Amybeth McNulty as well as several others will close out the final installment as well, with Bower embodying the big bad Vecna, who was introduced in Season 4.
“If season 4 was big, season 5 definitely feels bigger,” Bower said in a behind-the-scenes video released at the halfway point of production of Season 5.
Did Sadie Sink’s Character Max die in Season 4 of Stranger Things?
Max Mayfield’s fate is uncertain, but Sink has revealed that she will be running in some way in Season 5 as of a recent Variety cover story.
Sink spoke with Deadline about her character’s heartwrenching finale ending in Season 4.
RELATED: ‘Stranger Things’: The Duffer Brothers Discussed Killing Off Fan Favorite Max Mayfield In Season 4
Did Joseph Quinn’s character Eddie Munson die?
Eddie Munson, a breakout star character of Season 4, is more certainly dead, though Quinn did give pause in a red carpet interview for A Quiet Place: Day One when the reporter suggested he might still be back in Season 5 somehow.
Who else is behind Stranger Things Season 5?
The Shawshank Redemption (YEAR) director and Walking Dead creator Frank Darabont came out of retirement to direct on the installment.
Of course, the Duffer brothers helm the series, and Shawn Levy produces and directs on the show.
RELATED: ‘Stranger Things’ Creators Shoot Down Season 5 Plot Twist Theory About Show’s Ending
Will there be more Seasons of Stranger Things?
No, Season 5 is the last one, but the universe will live on through the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which delves deeper into the lives of teenage Joyce, Hopper, Karen Wheeler and Lonnie Byers when Henry Creel (aka Vecna) first came to town.
Deadline exclusively reported that this first play will be one of three.
RELATED: ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow” Coming To Broadway In March; See Trailer Released Today
There will also be an animated spinoff series, which remains untitled for now.
What else are the Duffer Brothers working on?
The pair behind Stranger Things are collaborating with Netflix on another show called The Boroughs, created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance), which will star Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman, Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Clarke Peters and Denis O’Hare. Addiss and Matthews will serve as showrunners.
Another series in the works at Netflix from the Duffers is Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, which may star Camila Morrone and Adam DiMarco.
RELATED: Everything We Know About ‘The Boroughs’ So Far
The creators will also tackle an adaptation of Stephen King’s Talisman into a Netflix series, and they are behind