Warning: Spoilers for Stranger Things 4: Volume 2 ahead.
It’s official: Season 5 of Stranger Things will be its last… and we FINALLY have a trailer for it. Or actually, a teaser trailer.
In February 2022, the Duffer Brothers announced the news that season 5 would be Stranger Things' swan song in an open letter shared with fans alongside the official poster for season 4. "Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things," the duo wrote in their letter. "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."
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“With nine scripts, over eight hundred pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a runtime nearly twice the length of any previous season, Stranger Things 4 was the most challenging season yet, but also the most rewarding one,” the Duffer Brothers shared, calling the fourth season “the beginning of the end.” The duo also shared that the decision to split the season in two parts was due to its “unprecedented length” and to get it to fans “as soon as possible.”
The Duffer Brothers have served as the series creators and showrunners since Stranger Things premiered on Netflix back in 2016. Now, with a two-volume season 4 in the rearview, there's only one chapter left to focus on for our favorite group of Hawkins kids. The Duffer Brothers also revealed that though Stranger Things may be coming to an end, its universe will not. “There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes.”
With the promise of so much and so little left on the horizon, we've gathered everything we know so far about Stranger Things season 5, including trailer, release dates, plot details, cast info, and more. Below, check out everything you need to know about Stranger Things 5 and click on a topic to jump there directly.
Is there a trailer for Stranger Things season 5?
Indeed. Netflix released the first teaser trailer for Stranger Things 5 on July 16, 2025. The trailer, which you can watch above, opens with fan-favorite Steve Harrington (played by Joe Keery), who is parked inside his car, now fully equipped with a satellite antenna, outside WSQK radio as he cranks up some decibels. The next scene cuts to all of our favorites counting down and preparing for war.
We see Dustin visiting Eddie's grave, Lucas holding Max's hand while she lies in her hospital bed, as well as Mike and Eleven bonding. “After all we've been through. This thing. It ties us together. Forever,” Jonathan tells Nancy. We then get to see lots of blood, crying, explosions, as well as Vecna's return.
The official synopsis for the season, as shared by Netflix, is as follows: “The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: to 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.”
A whole year before the first teaser trailer for season 5 dropped, Netflix had previously gifted us all with something special. The streamer dropped the very first look at Stranger Things 5 with never-before-seen set footage in celebration of the cast and crew reaching the halfway mark of filming on July 15, 2024.
“We're about halfway through filming now, and it's exciting," series star Caleb McLaughlin says via voiceover in the clip. "There's so much going on. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Stranger Things season 5.”
“I started when I was 10, I'm now turning 20 years old,” says Millie Bobby Brown, entering the soundstage. “It feels very weird.”
The clip then takes us inside the lot where the show is filming, sharing sneak peeks of Linda Hamilton entering her trailer, Vecna's return, Lucas and Max's reunion, a slimy, menacing dark hole, walls engulfed by the vines of the Upside Down, Maya Hawke and Joe Keery, and so many more exciting reveals.
“Like every season, you never know what to expect. 100% the wait will be worth it,” says McLaughlin. Noah Schnapp agrees, just scenes later: “I think this is gonna be the best season yet.” “Season 4 was big, season 5 definitely feels bigger," says Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Vecna. Watch the full video above!
Are there any photos from Stranger Things season 5?
To coincide with the release of the first teaser trailer on July 16, 2025, Netflix released the first set of photos from Stranger Things season 5, most of which correspond to key moments in the trailer. You can see all the pics below:
At Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event on Saturday, May 31, the streaming platform finally confirmed the official release dates for Stranger Things season 5. The season will be released in three installments: Volume 1 on November 26, Volume 2 on Christmas Day, and the finale on New Year's Eve 2025. As far as exact timings, each volume will be released at 5 p.m. PT. (That is 8 p.m. if you are on the East Coast.)
Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, and Noah Schnapp — as well as Millie Bobby Brown and Gaten Matarazzo, virtually — took to the live stage to take a trip down memory lane and share the confirmed date. “It’s so hard to believe our Stranger Things journey started ten years ago," Schnapp said before the trio shared archival footage of them from season 1. Buckle up, gang: we're headed to The Upside Down one final time.
Pre-strikes, the Duffer Brothers had assured fans that there would be a much shorter wait than the three-year gap between seasons 3 and 4. "The gap should be quite a bit shorter this time due to the fact that we already have an initial outline, and we can't imagine there will be another six-month forced hiatus," the Duffer brothers said during an interview with Variety in the summer of 2022. How ironic.
Has Stranger Things season 5 finished filming?
Yes! On December 20, 2024, Netflix announced that production had officially wrapped on Stranger Things season 5. The streamer celebrated the end of filming the final season with ten never-before-seen behind-the-scenes photos of the cast and crew on set over the past year — you can check them out in the gallery below by swiping.
Back in October, Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler on the show, teased to People that season 5 was almost done filming. “We're almost done shooting,” Wolfhard shared. “It's going great, and it has been unbelievable. It's been very special. I mean, being able to just be with everyone knowing it is the last season has been really great, but it's pretty surreal.”
Gaten Matarazzo, known for his role as Dustin Henderson, echoed the sentiment earlier that same month, admitting the cast and crew were “getting towards the end of our filming process for the fifth season” while sharing that season 5 will “highlight the characters that we've known and loved so much from day one.”
Back in August 2022, the @strangerwriters X account had previously posted an update with only two words: “Day 1.” Pictured was a whiteboard with a hand-drawn Stranger Things 5 logo, and in the reflection of the whiteboard, you can make out a bunch of people seated around a table. The writer's room had officially begun, and Stranger Things 5 was officially in development. By September, the writers' room had finished grid-blocking the entire plot of the season.
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Filming for Stranger Things 5 was intended to begin in May 2023. However, during the first week of May, the Writers Guild of America officially went on strike. Only a few weeks later, the Screen Actors Guild union also went on strike, halting production on both ends for over 140 days. On September 27, 2023, the writers confirmed that development on season 5 had resumed with a short and sweet message written on an otherwise blank script page: “We're back.”
Then, Netflix announced Stranger Things 5 had begun production on January 8, 2024. The streamer posted a black and white photo of the series' entire cast and crew reunited on the official Instagram account. “🚨THIS IS A CODE RED🚨 STRANGER THINGS 5 production has officially begun!!!” read the caption.
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Earlier this summer, Ross Duffer had basically confirmed the late-December wrap date with an Instagram post. The Duffer Bro. posted a full cast and crew photo from a soundstage in celebration of hitting the halfway mark of production on season 5. “Week 24. Happy halfway to the best cast and crew ever,” he wrote in the caption. (Two people are blurred out in the center of the pic… any guesses on who they are?)
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What will Stranger Things season 5 be about?
Stranger Things 5 will likely follow the Hawkins gang's final adventure as they team up to crack their biggest mystery yet: how to defeat Vecna once and for all. The Duffer Brothers previously told TV Line that there will be a time jump and confirmed to Collider that the last season will primarily be set in Hawkins and the Upside Down — no more being split between Russia, California, and Indiana. The brothers have also revealed in multiple interviews that the main focus of season 5 will be to break down the mythology of the Upside Down and finally provide answers to questions we've had since season 1.
Despite the adventures being more intense in the upcoming final season, seasons 1 and 5 will have more than just questions and answers in common, according to the Duffer Brothers. “This season – it’s like season 1 on steroids,” Matt Duffer told The Guardian in December 2023. “It's the biggest it's ever been in terms of scale."
With everyone back in Hawkins, the character dynamics will be reminiscent of when we first met the gang, Matt added. “The boys and Eleven [will be] interacting more in line with how it was in season 1,” he explained. “And, yes, there may be spin-offs, but the story of Eleven and Dustin and Lucas and Hopper, their stories are done here. That’s it… outside of the play. So if you want to see more of some of them, go see the play.” (ICYMI: there's a prequel play called The First Shadow currently on London's West End, set in the 1950s, which includes young versions of Joyce Byers, Jim Hopper, and Bob Newby.)
On November 6 — the date Will Byers vanished in 1983, which Netflix deemed Stranger Things Day — the team behind the series has made it a tradition to tease the next season. 2022's Stranger Things Day revealed the title of the first episode of the fifth and final season. “Season 5. Chapter one. The crawl. Happy Stranger Things day,” read the caption from the show's official Twitter account. Fans attempted to decode the title almost immediately, googling “what is a crawl in DND” and scouring Metallica lyrics.
On Stranger Things Day 2023, the writers shared a snippet of the opening scene of season 5's first episode. According to the script, the episode will open in darkness with the sound of cold wind and groaning trees in the background before a child singing “a familiar song” is heard.
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How many episodes will Stranger Things season 5 have?
Stranger Things season 5 will consist of eight episodes. On Stranger Things Day 2024, Netflix unveiled all eight episode titles for the fifth season, which will no doubt have fans busy trying to crack the code of each episode title before the season premieres. (Click here to find our breakdown of the episode titles and what they might reveal about the plot of season 5.)
- 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 1: The Rightside Up
While eight may seem like a small episode count for a final season, Maya Hawke emphasized the crew's focus on the length and quality of the eight episodes. While speaking to Podcrushed in early July 2024, Maya Hawke joked that the show was “cursed” by delays, but that it's moving along — patience is key. “We’re making, basically, eight movies," clarified Hawke. "The episodes are very long.”
Matt Duffer had previously confirmed that season 5 will be regular-sized, not super-sized like season 4 (which had a total runtime of nearly 13 hours) while appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in July 2022. “The only reason we don’t expect [it] to be as long is, season [four], if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery," Matt said. "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]."
Season 5 will apparently start off with a bang, since there will be “less to ramp up." “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 [final] season feel really different,” Matt explained to The Wrap. “I’m sure the wrap-up will be a lot longer."
While appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ross echoed this, joking that the series finale will have “like, eight endings.” One thing from season 4 will be repeated, though, and that's the film-length finale runtime. “We’re more likely to do what we did here, which is to just have a 2.5-hour episode,” added Matt about the series finale.
Which cast members are returning for Stranger Things season 5?
Luckily for us, the majority of the main cast made it out of season 4 alive and were present in the final scene of the season, so it's safe to assume that most, if not all, of the main cast will return for season 5. This includes Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Noah Schnapp (Will), Priah Ferguson (Erica), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan), Maya Hawke (Robin), Joe Keery (Steve), David Harbour (Hopper), and Winona Ryder (Joyce).
While we might not know what the future holds for most characters, Joe Keery did spill the beans about Steve Harrington in season 5, promising “good things” will happen to his character. During an appearance on The Movie Dweeb podcast on February 2024, Keery confirmed his beloved character does "get to have some good, good things this time around." The actor added that while "there's literally nothing I can say about anything," so far, what he's filmed as Steve for S5 “has been very fun already.”
Of course, Keery's comments could mean anything. He might be hinting at Steve and Nancy's rekindled relationship — or he might just be referring to some more hijinks with besties Dustin and Robin. Only time will tell, which brings us to three Volume 2 demises of characters who may not actually have a nail in their coffins.
In less-positive news, we bid farewell to Eddie Munson (played by Joseph Quinn) in episode 9 of season 4, as he died a hero to save his friends and protect his town. The Duffer Brothers confirmed the character's death while appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast following the finale. And yet, Joseph Quinn has been steadily dropping hints about a potential return for Eddie. Throughout his press run for A Quiet Place: Day One, Quinn has teased that “chances are high” for a Stranger Things reunion.
"I love those guys! I'd love to say hello," Quinn said coyly to Entertainment Tonight. "I'm sure they're working very hard to land the plane… I'm sure they're gonna deliver it in a pretty epic way. I have no doubts." When asked if that epic finale will include an appearance from him, a twist many fans have a hunch about, Quinn smiled: "I might have that feeling too. Or maybe I don't. I don't know! Who knows?"
Uh, we're pretty sure you do, sir! Quinn had answered similarly at a convention after a fan asked during a Q&A whether he would return for season 5. He dragged out his response with cheeky smirks and some hesitance, finally answering: "I do know... but I'm not telling you."
In July 2024, Quinn appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and revealed that he knows how Stranger Things will end, but that he refuses to confirm or deny whether it will involve his character Eddie. “I mean, I’m just excited to see. I’m not saying anything,” said Quinn. "I had to tie them to a chair and get it out of them! But I do know now, I know some bits, and it sounds very exciting. I’m very excited to see how they pull it off, and I’ve no doubts that it’s very much within all of their capacities — the showrunners, the direction, the cast, everything.”
Max became a victim of Vecna's curse in the two-part finale and was technically dead for a full minute before Eleven restarted her heart with her powers. The last we see of Max, she's hospitalized and in a coma. Eleven tries to communicate with her by searching for her mind, but there is, tragically, no response.
When asked about Max's fate while speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2022, Sink was quick to point out that Max has a pulse and is technically still alive and present in the show. "I'm not sure where we're going and what Max's state is. It's definitely all up in the air right now," said Sink. "I'm just as excited as everyone else to find out where Max is and how she's doing."
Jamie Campbell Bower, who portrayed this season's villain Vecna/Henry/One, also hinted at a S5 return to EW, noting the scene where Vecna should be dead but suddenly disappears. JCB opened up further to NME, teasing that Vecna will most likely be back for season 5, and he'll be back with a hell of a vengeance.
“He’s pissed, he’s properly vexed,” said Campbell Bower. “I don’t think he’s slunk off licking his wounds in misery. He’s rebuilding, and he’s out for blood. It’s like, you’ve really f*cking pushed the buttons now, that classic Jason Voorhees [the iconic killer in Friday the 13th] thing — you’ve made a big mistake.”
Though Campbell Bower still hasn't confirmed whether he's signed on for multiple seasons, Will's mention to Mike that he could still feel Vecna's presence during the finale is almost confirmation enough. "I think Vecna and Will have a connection that’s yet to be explored,” continued JCB. “As a fan, I’d be interested to see more of that.”
Will new characters be introduced in Stranger Things season 5?
So far, a total of four new cast members have been confirmed to join Stranger Things 5: child actors Jake Connelly and Nell Fisher (previously seen in Bookworm), Alex Breaux (Waco: The Aftermath, See, When They See Us), and The Terminator star Linda Hamilton. (You can spot glimpses of the new cast in the BTS video Netflix released on July 15, at the top of this story.)
While speaking to IndieWire in August 2022, the Duffer Brothers broke down their rationale behind bringing new characters on the show and praised the adaptability and performances of actors brought on the series after season 1, like Joseph Quinn, Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, and Dacre Montgomery. Though they avoid introducing multiple new core characters in a given season, the Duffer Brothers admitted that new characters can bring fresh ideas, just like new plot devices or new creatures to battle.
“I just like shaking it up, so we shake it up by changing the plot or adding in a new monster,” said Matt. “We’re doing our best to resist [adding new characters] for Season 5. We’re trying not to do that so we can focus on the OG characters, I guess.”
With such a finite amount of time left with the OG Hawkins gang, it makes sense that the Stranger Things writers want to make sure that fans aren't left feeling shortchanged by the series finale. This means the four new faces seen around town in Stranger Things 5 will likely be the only additions.
However, it's still possible for more cast members to be added. Fans are still rooting for a love interest for Maya Hawke’s character Robin — but she’s not feeling too excited about it. ICYMI: season four ended with Hawke’s character, Robin Buckley, finally making a move on her crush, Hawkins High’s resident clarinetist Vickie over PB&J sandwiches. Though nothing was made explicit, the Duffer Bros were probably laying the ground for a blossoming romance in the final season of the show, meaning Robin could officially get a girlfriend soon. However, there is a small caveat: Hawke is not entirely sold.
“I feel mixed about it,” the actor told Yahoo! Entertainment in June 2023 about the possibility of having an on-screen GF for Robin. “I feel like there’s that’s both a great thing, and I also love characters where their love life is not the center of their existence.”
Instead of focusing on Robin’s purely romantic life, Hawke would love to keep spotlighting and centering friendship as part of her character’s arc, particularly her relationship with Joe Keery’s Steve Harrington. “That friendship with Steve is so special,” Hawke admitted. “Friendships have been carrying me through my life, and I think they’re really important, and they deserve their time.”
How will Stranger Things end?
Prior to filming the season, the Duffer Brothers said they were not entirely sure what this last season would look like, but they knew for sure how it would end. “It's like that lighthouse blinking in the distance... while a lot of season 5 is actually pretty blurry, the last 30 minutes of it are pretty clear in our heads,” said Ross. "So if we can make the journey entertaining, I think that we have an end that will hopefully satisfy. You can't satisfy everyone, but the hope is that it's something that feels right for this story."
The creative duo previously told The Wrap that top dogs at Netflix shed real tears once they shared their ideas for the arc of season 5. “I saw executives crying who I've never seen cry before, and it was wild,” they shared. And they are not the only ones who cried.
“The end of this episode when we were reading it — just us reading it — about halfway through, people started crying,” David Harbour (Hopper) shared. “Then about the last 20 minutes, it was just uncontrollably crying, waves of different people. Noah Schnapp being my favorite.”
In April 2025, with filming wrapped, Noah Schnapp echoed Harbour's comments while teasing the ending of Stranger Things once again while speaking to THR at the opening night of Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway. When asked about the series finale, the actor said that "people are going to be truly devastated.”
“As sad as it was, I’m so excited to see the world’s reaction to watching the finale because there’s not going to be a dry eye, it’s going to be sad,” he added. “Not to be so negative, it is a really great season and people will love it.”
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Previously, while speaking to Forbes in January 2023, Schnapp said that he was “very very excited for what's to come." “I think they did a great job with Will's character this season, and beautifully addressed everything they needed to,” said Schnapp. "The way they closed the show is just perfect — the story started with Will, and it’ll end with Will.”
Back in the summer of 2022, Schnapp confirmed that his character Will was gay, and that Will was in love with Finn's character Mike. Six months later, Schnapp came out as gay on TikTok, much to the love and support of his fans, family, and castmates. Schnapp reflected on the impact Will had on his own self-actualization in his August 2023 cover story for Variety.
“Once I did fully embrace that Will was gay, it was just an exponential speed towards accepting it for myself,” Schnapp told the publication. “I would be in a completely different place if I didn’t have Will to portray, and to embrace and help me accept myself. I think if I never played that character, I probably would still be closeted.”
“I think the way I act in Season 5, honestly, might be a little different," he continued. "I will be fully aware of who I am. Knowing all of that about myself and being able to invest that in my character, I’m honestly just excited.”
In the same interview, Ross Duffer elaborated even more about Will's storyline in season 5: “Will really takes center stage again in 5. This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together. Will is used to being the young one, the introverted one, the one that’s being protected. So part of his journey, it’s not just sexuality — it’s Will coming into his own as a young man.”
Talking to IndieWire in January 2023, Finn Wolfhard teased the ending of Stranger Things 5 and opened up about one of the biggest unanswered questions of season 4: how will Mike react to Will's romantic feelings?
“I’m incredibly proud of Noah for coming out publicly like that. I think it was so incredible and brave,” Wolfhard said to IndieWire. “As far as the Mike and Will relationship goes, I always found it kind of funny, especially last season of Mike just being so clueless. I would imagine Mike is going to be totally accepting of Will, and I really want Will to have a really happy ending. And I think he will."
“What’s going to be so awesome about season five is that the Duffers are sort of trying to thread this needle of trying to get every character to have their perfect ending,” Wolfhard continued. "So I’m excited to see what ends up happening.” Us, too.
It's been rumored that Harbour knew how the series ends prior to filming, a piece of gossip that hilariously infuriated co-star Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin). And speaking of Dustin — for fans who were disturbed by the boy-genius seeming to be the only member of the group mourning Eddie's death, the Duffer Brothers also noted that Eddie will be honored in the final season, and that his death will actually have "huge repercussions" for those who made it out of season 4 alive.
Will there be spinoffs of Stranger Things?
The Duffer Brothers have been hinting for years that this isn't the last of the Stranger Things universe, and as the end of the original series nears, they have more to share about expanding the franchise. "There's a version of [a spinoff] developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel," Ross said while speaking to Variety. "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,” said Matt. "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."
The Duffer Brothers have also revealed that they would like to hand the spinoff to someone new. “The idea, ultimately, is to pass the baton to someone else, someone who’s hopefully really talented and passionate,” Matt added while on Happy Sad Confused. “Even the idea of Ross and I, say, doing a pilot and leaving it, it just feels silly to me. You really need to be there from the beginning to end. I think we need to find a partner to help us with that.”
But apparently, Finn Wolfhard took one guess at what the spinoff series was about and got it right. "Finn Wolfhard, he wasn't spitballing, he just went, 'I think this would be a cool spin-off,'" Ross shared with Variety. "And we were like, 'How in the world…?'"
As of right now, the live-action spin-off Wolfhard guessed correctly is just one of multiple projects lined up for development at Netflix by the Duffers. A prequel stage play titled Stranger Things: The First Shadow debuted on London's West End in November 2023, and is set to close in August 2024 as the show prepares to transfer to Broadway in 2025; and an untitled animated spinoff series is also currently in development.
This post will be updated as more news about Stranger Things 5 breaks.