Stranger Things Season 5 is undoubtedly the most anticipated show on TV. The Duffer Brothers’ captivating horror and ’80s nostalgia-fest has been going strong since 2016, and we’ve got one last chapter to go.
Stranger Things concludes its series with our leads facing off once again with Vecna. Despite Eddie Munson‘s sacrifice, evil wants revenge.
The final season is set to be as nerve-wracking as the fourth, with high stakes, the Stranger Things cast‘s futures uncertain, and The Upside Down seeping further into our dimension.
With filming for Stranger Things Season 5 taking place this year, here are the latest updates about the fifth and final chapter of the hit Netflix show, from plot details to who could die.
Is there a Stranger Things Season 5 release date?
No release date has been confirmed, but there is a release window of 2025.
Stranger Things creators The Duffers Brothers took to Twitter/X on May 6, 2023, to confirm that the show had stopped development in support of the Writer’s Guild strike.
“Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins. While we’re excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then — over and out.”
After the strikes ended, on January 8, 2024, Netflix released the first cast photo from Season 5, writing: “THIS IS A CODE RED… Stranger Things 5 production has officially begun!”
On July 3, 2024, Stranger Things Season 5’s production hit a major milestone with director Ross Duffer posting a photo of the show’s crew with the caption, “Week 24. Happy halfway to the best cast and crew ever.”
Maya Hawke, who joined the show in Season 3, also dropped a major hint about how grandiose the eight-episode season will be, telling the Podcrushed podcast, “We’re making, basically, eight movies. The episodes are very long.”
Season 5 cast
Most of the main cast will be returning for Season 5, including Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, and David Harbour.
As for new additions to the cast, Season 5 will include 80s icon Linda Hamilton, aka: Sarah Conner from the Terminator franchise. Right now her role is unnamed.
- Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven
- Finn Wolfhard as Mike
- Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas
- Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin
- Noah Schnapp as Will
- Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield
- Natalia Dyer as Nancy
- Joe Keery as Steve
- Charlie Heaton as Jonathan
- Maya Hawke as Robin
- Winona Ryder as Joyce
- David Harbour as Hopper
- Linda Hamilton
As for Sadie Sink’s Max, we know she’s back despite the coma we last saw the character in during the heartwrenching Season 4 finale – she was in the cast photo Netflix shared, which implies Max doesn’t die in the time between Season 4 and 5.
As for Noah Schnapp, after coming out shortly after confirming his character Will is gay, he told Variety: “I think the way I act in Season 5, honestly, might be a little different. 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 said, “Will really takes center stage again in Season 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.”
Another of the key cast members, Millie Bobby Brown, has stated that she is more than ready for her time on Stranger Things to come to an end.
“When you’re ready, you’re like, ‘All right, let’s do this. Let’s tackle this last senior year. Let’s get out of here,’” Brown told Variety. “Stranger Things takes up a lot of time to film and it’s preventing me from creating stories that I’m passionate about. So I’m ready to say, ‘Thank you, and goodbye.’”
Is there a trailer?
While there’s no trailer yet, there have been some teaser videos.
One in particular shows the title previews which you can check out below:
Season 5 plot
The Duffer Brothers have explained that Season 5 delves into the secrets and lore of the Upside Down. It’s also been confirmed events will take place a full year after what happened in Season 4.
Speaking to Variety, they confirmed the next season will flesh out the demonic underworld even more as “a lot of those answers for the Upside Down is really what the basis of Season 5 is about.”
The Upside Down is home to monsters such as the Mind Flayer and Season 4 baddie Vecna, but fans have been eager to learn more about its origin. The Duffers are certain of one thing: the ending. “We know what the ending is,” they told SFX.
“It’s conceivable that it changes but I think it’s unlikely because it’s one of those endings that just feels, and has always felt, right. It also feels sort of inevitable. Then when you come up with it, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah well, that is absolutely what it has to be.'”
David Harbour also said he knows how the series ends, and it’s going to be “very, very moving.”
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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Stranger Things creators revealed that they made Netflix executives cry when they read through the first script for the upcoming season.
Finn Wolfhard told Collider, “It answers an insane amount of questions about the lore of Stranger Things, the world-building. I think a lot of people will be happy with getting back – it’s the last season, so we kind of want to get back to the roots of why the show was so special in the first place, and why the dynamics are so special.”
Episode titles
All titles for Season 5’s eight episodes have now been revealed.
They are:
- 1. The Crawl
- 2. The Vanishing Of
- 3. The Turnbow Trap
- 4. Sorcerer
- 5. Shock Jock
- 6. Escape From Camazotz
- 7. The Bridge
- 8. The Rightside Up
What happened in Season 4?
Throughout Season 4, we see the Hawkins kids scramble to uncover the mystery of Vecna, a supernatural killer who was originally 001 in Dr. Martin Brenner’s studies.
After Eleven banished him to the Upside Down, the harsh conditions of the otherworldly realm transformed him into a formidable foe.
We’ve seen Vecna exercise his brutal powers over innocent teens, starting with Chrissy’s horrific death in Episode 1 and working his way to Max in Episode 4, who narrowly escaped his eye-pinching grasp with the power of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t lucky enough to get away unscathed a second time and is now stuck in a coma, where she’s staying until Season 5.
After spending some time in a Russian prison, Joyce Byers and Murray Bauman were able to successfully bring Hopper home, though not before he epically beheaded a Demogorgon. The California crew of Mike, Will, Johnathan, and new character Argyle also made it back to Hawkins, though Hawkins isn’t exactly the best place to be at the moment.
Having succeeded in his plan to sacrifice four kids, Vecna opens a giant gate across Hawkins, bringing the Upside Down the right side up. In the final moments of the season, our heroes watch black smoke pour out from the gate, threatening what’s to come in Season 5.
Eleven may have regained her powers after working with the late Doctor Brenner, but will this be enough for her to face the biggest danger Hawkins has ever known?
Is Eddie Munson in Season 5?
No official sources have confirmed Eddie’s return, but actor Joseph Quinn has teased a potential comeback.
On June 27, 2024, Quinn told Entertainment Tonight that “chances are high” of him reuniting with the Stranger Things cast. “I love those guys,” he added. “I’d love to say hello.”
When it comes to fans having a feeling Eddie might be making a reappearance, Quinn added: “I might have that feeling, too. Or maybe I don’t. I don’t know. Who knows?”
It’s all very sneaky, but there could be some potential there. But as far as plot is concerned, Eddie is dead. Dead as a doorknob. Even the Duffer Brothers confirmed that Eddie was always doomed from the start.
“Even imagining the flipside of that, where he does survive that final battle, there’s not a great life waiting for Eddie in the right side up either, so he was really designed from the get go as a doomed character,” Matt Duffer said.
If he is going to make a comeback, then it’ll more than likely be in flashback form. But, as they say, stranger things have happened. Which leads us to…
Stranger Things Season 5 theories
Some of the main fan theories surrounding Season 5 involve Eddie Munson’s return as a vampire, and Steve dying in the Upside Down.
The Eddie vampire theory comes from a Dungeons and Dragons character, Kas. Kas is a vampire too, and fans are so desperate for Eddie to return that they think the bite from the Upside Down vampire might give him reason to survive. Not to mention making him a creature of the night.
As for Steve, fans have been predicting his death for a while now. The latest guess comes from an on-set audio leak. In the clip, screams can be heard, which sound an awful lot like: “Steve! You need to run!” Reports also claimed that screams and fighting sounds followed.
With this being the final season, it’s expected that not every character is going to make it. “Well, it’s the last season, so people are probably going to die,” Maya Hawke told Rolling Stone. “I would love to die and get my hero’s moment. I’d love to die with honor, as any actor would.”
Someone’s going to have to bite the dust, and Steve is as good a candidate as any.
For more exciting TV on Netflix, check out The Sandman Season 2 and Wednesday Season 2. Or, find out when Stranger Things came out and if Stranger Things is based on a true story.