Stranger Things season 5


The fifth and final season of the American science fiction horror drama television series Stranger Things, marketed as Stranger Things 5, was released on the streaming service Netflix in two volumes and the finale. The first set of four episodes was released on November 26, 2025, the second set of three episodes was released on December 25, and the finale was released on December 31. It was produced by the show's creators, the Duffer Brothers, along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen.
The season stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Brett Gelman, Priah Ferguson, Linda Hamilton, Cara Buono, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Nell Fisher. Joe Chrest, Sherman Augustus, Alex Breaux, Jake Connelly, Amybeth McNulty, Randy Havens, and Linnea Berthelsen appear in recurring roles. The season received positive reviews from critics.
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Premise

Set in November 1987, a year and eight months after the events of the fourth season, the group seeks to find and kill Vecna following the opening of rifts throughout Hawkins. Their mission becomes complicated when the military establishes a quarantine in town and begins hunting Eleven. As the anniversary of Will Byers' disappearance approaches, the group must unite for a final battle against the forces of the Upside Down.

Cast and characters

Main

Also starring

Recurring

  • Calista Craig as Mary
  • Hope Hynes Love as Miss Harris
  • Eden Stephens as Debbie Miller
  • Gianlucca Gazzo as Glenn
  • Carson Minniear as Thomas
  • Anthony B. Jenkins as Joshua
  • Birdie Borria as Rebecca
  • Alyse Elna Lewis as Wendy

Guest

  • Clayton Royal Johnson as Andy
  • Hunter Romanillos as Chance
  • Chantell D. Christopher as Doris
  • Caroline Elle Abrams as Tina Turnbow
  • Gray Hawks as Mr. Turnbow
  • Kelly Collins Lintz as Mrs. Turnbow
  • Aiden Armstrong as Danny Harrington
  • Kyle Riggs as Private Chapman
  • Callaway Corrick as Ashley Klein
  • Frederick Koehler as a scientist
  • Karen Ceesay as Sue Sinclair
  • Catherine Curtin as Claudia Henderson
  • Arnell Powell as Charles Sinclair
  • Sydney Bullock as Stacey
  • Tilly Morris as Sara Hopper

Episodes


Production

Development

On February 17, 2022, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer released an expansive letter that included, amongst other revelations, the fourth season's two-part release schedule, their intention to produce a spinoff series set in the world of the show for Netflix, and the renewal of the series for a fifth and final season. The duo had originally indicated the show was planned to run for a maximum four seasons, but a five season run was later teased by producers in 2017.
As with seasons past, planning for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things began before the preceding season's release. However, due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Duffers were able to completely outline the fifth season before the fourth had even begun shooting, which was a departure from their usual development cadence. They then revisited their outline and reworked the structure and events of season five based on feedback they received after the release of season four, even going so far as to alter the series' ending. In June 2023, it was announced that Dan Trachtenberg had been hired to direct an episode of the season. Executive producer Shawn Levy was confirmed to be directing at least one episode in the season by September 2023. However, after the movie Predator: Badlands was greenlit, Trachtenberg became unable to direct his episode, so it was directed instead by Frank Darabont. Darabont came out of retirement to direct two episodes, having been a huge fan of the series alongside his wife.

Writing

Writing for the fifth season began on August 2, 2022, about a month after the release of the fourth season's second volume. On November 6, 2022, it was announced that the first episode would be titled "Chapter One: The Crawl" and would be written by the Duffers. As noted by the Duffers in the WGFestival 2022, some unused ideas originally conceived for the second season were implemented in the fifth season's storylines. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on the entertainment industry, the Duffers had time to outline the fifth season before even the fourth season could be shot, edited and released, but once the fourth season was released, the Duffers received some feedback from both the fans and collaborators of the show, leading them to re-write some plans for the season, namely the series finale, and pitch them to Netflix, though they noted that most of their original plan stayed unchanged. The writers team described the tone of the season as if "season 1 and 4 had a baby" which was "injected with steroids". On May 6, 2023, the Duffers announced that writing for the season had been paused due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. On September 27, the day the strike ended, the Twitter account of the Stranger Things writers' room posted an image stating "We're back", confirming that writing had resumed. Netflix reportedly would prioritize writing this script because Stranger Things was profitable and because the actors, though still young, could not continue to portray teenagers forever. On October 14, 2023, it was revealed that writing was over halfway done. The Duffer Brothers mentioned the ease of writing the split in parts of the season as opposed to the split that was "necessitated" in the fourth season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The table read for episode 4 occurred on December 6, 2023, and the final table read occurred on September 8, 2024, in Stage 16 of the Atlanta production facilities used in previous Stranger Things seasons. It was attended by the Duffer Brothers, Levy, and the cast members. By this time, the actors had not read the script up to the finale since the Duffer brothers generally do not share their work with the cast. In August 2025, Ross mentioned that the first episode is the most "eventful" of the entire series along with the series premiere, and that the second has the "craziest cold open" they have done. With Variety, Matt revealed that we would see Mike Wheeler "became the leader again" but in a more "confident" and "mature" version than the one from the first season. The season will reveal the truth and what the Upside Down really is. It will also mark the end of the main characters' stories, with the finale wrapping up their stories, Vecna, and the creatures of the Upside Down. The military gains weight in the season establishing a military quarantine to try to cover the "portal disaster" and assigning a team, known as "The Wolf Pack" and led by Dr. Kay, to capture Eleven. Eleven now "has better control over her powers" and uses them "in more innovative ways", with Matt saying that the most accurate example would be "probably the Force". Finn Wolfhard said that one of the concerns was the finale would have a negative reception like the one of Game of Thrones, but when they read the script for the episode they knew that "it was something special", The Duffers mentioned that Vecna is now "stronger and scarier than ever" like "Freddy Krueger|Freddy on steroids" with, for example, his powers now being "effective" in the real world and not only in the Upside Down. Ross Duffer mentioned that Dustin Henderson is grieving and "struggling" over what happened to Eddie Munson, which will put "challenges" on his relationship with Steve Harrington and how it will be "destabilizing" that he will not be, as he has been in previous seasons, the one who keeps the group "together and keep everyone aligned". The Duffers mention that this season reveals what the Upside Down really is and why Vecna took Will Byers in the first season. Will is a central character of the season for the story to "go full circle" and explore his "connection and relationship" with Vecna. For Vecna, they drew inspiration from the "bad guys" in The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as well as Darth Vader's entrance in the Star Wars film Rogue One to showcase "his powers in full display".
The Duffers discussed Will's powers, a decision they had been considering for some time. They mentioned that his powers aren't like Vecna's or Eleven's; he can only control what's inside Vecna's and the Upside Down's hive mind, with Ross mentioning that his power source comes from Vecna, and it's as if he's "puppeteering" it. Noah Schnapp mentioned that he feels that the relationship between Will and Vecna are similar to the one Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort have in the Harry Potter franchise, and that more of those parallels would be shown throughout the season. The events of the prequel play Stranger Things: The First Shadow hint that that the Mind Flayer was the one who made Henry accept his dark side and connection to the Upside Down. Therefore, Matt hinted that the finale would reveal who "the real evil is": Vecna or the Mind Flayer.
Ross Duffer said they never intended the ending of Eleven to be with her staying with Mike and the rest of her friends, as it was necessary for her to "go away" so the group could "move on" and to close the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down.

Casting

The fifth season features the return of 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. When production began in January 2024, a set photo released by the team confirmed the return of Amybeth McNulty as Vickie. That same month, Eduardo Franco, who had a starring role as Argyle in the previous season, stated that he was not involved and that Argyle would not return.
In June 2023, during Netflix's Tudum event, it was announced that Linda Hamilton would be joining the cast. Hamilton had contacted the Duffers through Zoom, with them providing her information about the "shape" of her character, but not the story. In July 2024, Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux were revealed to have joined the cast in undisclosed roles. Amidst filming in mid-October 2024, a casting call was announced by Knight Edge Media for Jim Hopper's late daughter Sara, who was previously portrayed by Elle Graham in the first season, with indications she would similarly feature in flashback sequences with a requirement of the chosen actress to resemble Graham back then. Fisher was later confirmed to appear as Holly Wheeler, who was previously played by twin actresses Anniston and Tinsley Price in the first four seasons.
The role of Mrs. Harris was written for Hope Hynes Love, who was the high school drama teacher of the Duffers. The season marked the return of Linnea Berthelsen as Kali Prasad / Eight, whose last appearance was on the second season. The Duffers talked about including her in each season, but not "just putting her in, to put her in", and found the right moment on this one. They mention that she will have a "big impact on Eleven's journey", with Brown mentioning that it impacts Eleven's life because she doesn't have "much family in her life" or many people who understand her as Kali does.

Filming

Harbour originally expected to shoot his scenes as Jim Hopper for the season concurrently with those of his character Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian for the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thunderbolts*, which was originally planned to be shot at the same time as the season in Atlanta. However, the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes caused both productions to be delayed. Because of this, the Duffers' initial agreement with Ryder upon joining the show back in mid-2015, that of letting her take a break from the series to reprise her role as Lydia Deetz in a possible Beetlejuice sequel that Tim Burton had been seriously planning since 2000, did not need to be granted as Ryder shot Beetlejuice Beetlejuice amid the disputes before filming on the season began.
After a significant delay due to the disputes, production of the fifth season began on January 8, 2024. By March 2024, Brown stated that there had been nine months left of filming and that she had then read the script for six episodes. On June 27, Hawke revealed on the "Podcrushed" podcast that the season will consist of "basically eight movies", and that the episodes are "very long". On July 3, Ross Duffer revealed that production was halfway done. In October 2024, Wolfhard stated to People that they were "almost done shooting". Filming wrapped on December 20, 2024. The last shot recorded on set was a lunchbox that "didn't include any of the cast". The Duffer brothers, despite the scheduling and time constraints that could have arisen, managed "to structure it" so every actor's last day was really their last scene. Keery revealed that everyone felt some "fatigue" after filming for a year, material which he describes as "incredible". Certain actors, such as Nell Fisher, had also filmed scenes from the finale before the table read.
The Duffers revealed that they have been able to try new methods of filming for this season, such as first-person shots of the Demogorgon, the "demo-vision".

Post-production

In January 2025, the Duffers announced that post-production for the season was underway and that work on the visual effects was "ahead of schedule". In October, the Duffers revealed that the editing process of the season was already complete.
In October, it was reported that each episode had cost $50–60 million, with the season as a whole reaching a budget of $400–480 million.

Marketing

In January 2025, a missing person poster for Eleven was released. New footage from the season was released on May 31, during the celebration of Tudum alongside the release dates. On July 15, the first promotional poster was released.
A teaser trailer was released on July 16, featuring the song "Child in Time" by Deep Purple. Aya Tsintziras of Game Rant praised the emotional charge between the characters in the teaser. One of the most talked about aspects of the teaser was Vecna's redesign, which had a "thinner" and "spinier" appearance.
The official trailer was released on October 30, featuring the song "Who Wants to Live Forever" by Queen. The trailer was accidentally posted hours earlier by Netflix. On November 6, during a virtual watch party, Netflix released the five minute opening sequence to "Chapter One: The Crawl". Early that month, Levy took a short break from filming Star Wars: Starfighter to be able to promote the season due to the show's 10th anniversary being a special occasion for him.
The series will collaborate with the video game Dead by Daylight for a second time through "Stranger Things Chapter 2", releasing on January 27, 2026, introducing as playable characters Eleven, Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley and Eddie Munson as Survivors and Vecna ​​as a Killer.

Release

The season had premiered at the TCL Chinese Theater on November 6, 2025, which is Stranger Things Day, and was on the streaming platform Netflix in two volumes and the finale, the first volume of four episodes was released on November 26, the second volume with three episodes was released four weeks later on December 25, while the series finale was released six days later on December 31. For the season premiere, Netflix's bandwidth was increased by 30% to prevent slow performance, but the site crashed shortly after the premiere. Upon the first volume's release, the second episode initially remained titled "Chapter Two: The Vanishing of..." on Netflix's season page, but was titled "Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler" in its opening credits. Netflix again crashed shortly after the finale aired.
The series finale had a limited theatrical release in the United States and Canada with showtimes beginning the evening of December 31, 2025, and continuing through January 1, 2026. It was previously reported that the finale would not be released in theaters. However, it was reported that the plan to release the finale in theaters had been "in the works for some time", with Ross Duffer stating that it had been in the works for a year. The finale was screened at 620 theaters with pre-sales of 1.1 million tickets, which were sold as concession vouchers rather than traditional admissions due to issues with the cast's residuals contracts. The theatrical release generated over $25 million in concession income.

Documentary

A behind-the-scenes documentary, titled One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, was released on Netflix on January 12, 2026.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the fifth season holds an approval rating of 83% based on 168 reviews. The website's critics consensus states, "Stranger Things plays its cards just right in Season 5, solidifying its pop culture classic status with genuinely captivating genre fare." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave a score of 71 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
The seventh episode, "Chapter Seven: The Bridge", was reported by most major entertainment news outlets to be review bombed on several sites due to a scene featuring one of the main characters, Will Byers, coming out as gay, and issues from some fans with either the writing, plot, or performances.