Netflix’s hit show “Stranger Things”, one of the highest grossing TV shows of all time, returns for its fifth and final season this week. The first four episodes will be released on November 26, the next three on Christmas Day, and the series will conclude in theaters on December 31. Fans have long been awaiting the conclusion of the beloved series, as season one debuted nine years ago in 2016, and the previous season, season four, came out in May and July of 2022.
Series regulars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Cara Buono, and Jamie Campbell Bower will all return, with Amybeth McNulty being promoted to the main cast. New young actors include Nell Fisher, who will play Holly Wheeler after she was recast, and Jake Connelly, playing a boy named Derek Turnbow. Alex Breaux, who played Dr. Brenner in the original Broadway cast of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, will be playing Lieutenant Robert Akers. Linda Hamilton also joins the cast, playing government scientist Dr. Kay.
Stranger Things 5’s plot revolves around the crew finding and killing Vecna, the biggest threat Hawkins has seen and the mastermind behind the Upside Down, who was introduced in season four. A teaser trailer revealed the series will pick up in the fall of 1987, a time jump of a year after season four’s conclusion.
Karen and Holly Wheeler, the mother and sister of main characters Nancy and Mike, are expected to have expanded roles and have appeared heavily in promotion. Episode two’s title is “The Vanishing of …”, a callback to season one’s “The Vanishing of Will Byers”, and many fans have theorized that the name in the blank is Holly Wheeler.
The show’s creators, The Duffer Brothers Matt and Ross, shared with Variety their thoughts on the cohesion of the groundbreaking series. Ross stated, “It doesn’t feel like we dropped a storyline — it all connects,” and Matt added on, “We do every last remaining thing we wanted to do with the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer and Vecna and the Upside Down and Hawkins and these characters. This is a complete story. It’s done.”
Season five was developed over an unusually long writing period due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes, giving the creative team more time than ever to refine the final chapters.
Executive producer Shawn Levy told GamesRadar+ what he’s most excited for audiences to see in season five, saying, “It’s the emotional gut punch of this season – and particularly in that last episode. There’s a reason it’s going into theatres. There’s a reason it deserves that. I think Matt and Ross made a masterpiece with the finale episode.”
Season five will not be goodbye to Hawkins, as The Duffer Brothers have announced plans to make a spin-off movie. Exploring what, though, they’re not yet sure, but fans can likely expect the same mix of supernatural mystery and character-driven storytelling that has made “Stranger Things” the global phenomenon it is.
Production for the final season is reported to be the largest yet, with expanded sets and even more reliance on visual and cinematic effects. The creative team has hinted that several sequences were designed specifically for a theatrical experience, contributing to the decision to release the two-hour series finale in theaters. Volume 1 comes to Netflix this Wednesday, and you don’t want to miss it.
