Vecna isn’t done with Hawkins just yet. After Season 4’s shocking finale, it’s no surprise that fans have been clamoring for Stranger Things Season 5. The good news is that there is another season of the hit Netflix series on the way. The bad news? Season 5 will be the show’s final season — and it’s taking absolutely forever to get here.
Stranger Things Season 5 was announced in 2022 and began production in January 2024. Yet here we are, halfway through 2025, and an official release date still hasn’t been set. On the Netflix website Tudum, the streaming platform shared that Stranger Things Season 5 should be dropping in fall 2025, but there are rumors the final season could be split into three different volumes, with one dropping in October 2025, another dropping in November 2025, and a third installment not dropping until 2026.
The long break between seasons has left a lot of fans curious if there will be a time jump or some fictional break to make up for lost time, but in a 2022 Collider interview with series creators Matt and Ross Duffer, the brothers revealed the final season will jump right into the action this time. “This season, for instance, it was two hours before our characters even realized the monster was killing people in Hawkins,” Ross said. “They know what the threat is now, and so that will help speed it up.”
That no doubt means there’s more heartbreak ahead for Eleven, Hopper, Will, Steve, and the rest of the Hawkins gang before they defeat Vecna and the rest of the Upside Down baddies for good. But it also means fans are in for plenty of drama before they bid Stranger Things farewell. While no one is ready to say goodbye to Eleven and her friends, it is comforting to know that everyone involved in making the series is passionate about serving up a conclusion that’s befitting the smash-hit sci-fi series.
Ready for some scoop worthy of The Hawkins Post? Read on for all the secrets the Duffers and the cast have spilled about Stranger Things Season 5 so far.
When will Stranger Things Season 5 premiere?
Season 4 of Stranger Things was split into two parts, premiering on May 27 and July 1, 2022, respectively, and the super-sized season premiered after a nearly three-year wait between Seasons 3 and 4. Fans were hopeful that Season 5 wouldn’t take as long, but if the finale season premieres in fall of 2025, it will have been over three years since we last visited Hawkins.
And that will probably come as a surprise to a lot of the cast. David Harbour, who plays Hopper, told GQ in a 2022 interview that he was pretty sure the show wouldn’t be gone quite as long as it had before. Harbour said, “I think we’ll [shoot] next year. They’re finishing writing it this year, and they need to prep and stuff, so hopefully it’ll be this year. But I think that’s the plan. So it’d probably come out mid-2024, based on our track record.”
Welp. Harbour. Here we are in mid-2025, and we still don’t know what’s happening.
What we do know is that Netflix has claimed a fall 2025 release, but we aren’t certain how many volumes Season 5 will be in. We also know that filming ended on Dec. 20, 2024, and Ross Duffer wrote on Instagram when production was over that he couldn’t wait to share it with all of us next year: 2025.
Is there a trailer for Stranger Things Season 5?
There’s no Stranger Things trailer yet, but May 31 is the date of Netflix Tudum 2025, a live event that gives updates on all of the streaming platform’s original shows and movies, so we’re hopeful to see one then.
Who will be in the cast for Stranger Things Season 5?
The Duffers have promised that Season 5 will take Stranger Things back to the beginning again. Part of that process will involve focusing on the characters viewers have been watching since the very start. Fans can expect to see the following actors back for Season 5: Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Harbour (Hopper), Winona Ryder (Joyce), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Noah Schnapp (Will), Priah Ferguson (Erica), Joe Keery (Steve), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan), and Maya Hawke (Robin).
But in perfect Duffer fashion, there will be a new cast member joining for the final season — and this actor also has major ‘80s movie connections, just like previous guest cast members have had. In 2023, it was announced that Linda Hamilton would officially be joining the Stranger Things cast.
Sadie Sink (Max) has been a big casting question mark after Season 4, however. At the end of the season, Max is left in a coma, and Sink has kept her character’s fate pretty close to the chest. In a 2024 interview with Variety, Sink shared, “They love having me run. That’s all I’ll say.” And the Duffer brothers have also mentioned that the character of Max will play a big role in the final season, but they’re staying tight-lipped on just how.
But don’t get your hopes up for any of your old favorites who died to make a comeback either. In an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Duffers confirmed that both Eddie (Joseph Quinn) and Brenner (Matthew Modine) are really dead. As for Vecna, the character is defeated for the moment, but he’s not gone, so expect to see Jamie Campbell Bower back again.
Are there any Stranger Things Season 5 spoilers?
The Duffers are understandably keeping mum about what’s next for Eleven and the rest of the gang, but they have let a few small spoilers slip. Most notably, Season 5 will bring the action back to Hawkins after a season that saw the characters scattered from Indiana to California and Russia. The goal is to meet the tone of Season 1.
“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,” Matt told Collider. “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 1 dynamics again, except on this grander scale.”
That Season 1 vibe also means Will will have a major focus on the Season 5 storyline, too. Rumors have been circulating for a while that Will might be the key to saving Hawkins (even if it means his own death in order to do so) because of his connection to the Upside Down from Season 1. Matt Duffer told Collider, “Will’s going to be a big part and focus, is really all I can say of Season 5. We’re starting to see his coming of age, really. Which has been challenging for a number of reasons, some of which are supernatural. But you’re starting to see him come into his own.”
But Ross went on to add, “And again, that’s setting up us coming full circle back to Season 1. I think you’ll see that with a couple of the character arcs, not just with Will.”
What else do we know about Stranger Things Season 5?
Luckily, things have remained pretty quiet as far as spoilers and storylines for Stranger Things Season 5 go. But we do have some insight, as Netflix has released all of the episode titles:
Episode 1
“The Crawl”
Episode 2
“The Vanishing of …”
Episode 3
“The Turnbow Trap”
Episode 4
“Sorcerer”
Episode 5
“Shock Jock”
Episode 6
“Escape from Camazotz”
Episode 7
“The Bridge”
Episode 8
“The Rightside Up”
That Episode 2 title is the one throwing everyone for a loop. When the episode titles were first shared on social media, the second part of that title was blurred out, and Netflix intends to keep it a secret.
Do the Duffer Brothers know how Season 5 will end?
It seems the Duffers have known how Stranger Things would end for quite some time now — they just weren’t sure how long it would take to get there. “During the six-month pandemic hiatus, we outlined Season 5 and pitched it to Netflix,” the Duffers told Variety. “Everyone there had also been present when we first pitched the show in 2015. While we were strangers then, we were now friends, and there were a lot of tears when it was over. It’s just been an extraordinary journey for all of us, and while it’s hard to believe that we’re approaching the end, we feel incredibly lucky to have such amazing partners.”
In other words, go ahead and stock up on tissues now.
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