Stranger ThingsSeason 5: All About the Highly-Anticipated Final Season

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Netflix

This post contains spoilers forStranger Things4, Vol. 2.

Stranger Thingsis officially coming to an end.

“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc forStranger Things. At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons,” they wrote at the time. “It proved too large to tell in four, but – as you’ll soon see for yourselves – we are now hurling toward our finale.”

Though we still have a way to go before the final season premieres in 2025, the cast and creators have already teased what’s in store, including the episode titles.

Here’s everything we know aboutStranger Thingsseason 5.

Which cast members are returning forStranger Thingsseason 5?

Netflix

As Netflix announced that the show hadbegun production for the final season, they shared a cast photo, confirming who will come back.

The cast photo also included Brett Gelman, Priah Ferguson, Cara Buono, Amybeth McNulty and Jamie Campbell Bower, who joined the cast in season 4 asthe show’s villain Vecna.

Hawke told PEOPLE in June 2024 that filming the final season has been “heartbreaking” for her, even though she was a relatively recent addition to the cast.

“I mean, it’s the end of a really long journey. Longer for some of my castmates, even, than me. It’s really sentimental," she said, adding, “We shoot for a long time, so it’s reinvigorating [to bring] the joy and finding it everyday and making it new. It’s a really fun thing to do."

Who is joining the cast ofStranger Thingsseason 5?

Chelsea Lauren/Variety/Shutterstock

In June 2023, Netflix announced thatLinda Hamilton will join the castofStranger Thingsfor the fifth and final season.

Though theTerminatorstar is joining the ranks, back in August 2022, theDuffer Brothersrevealed they were trying their bestnot to add any new charactersinto the new season in order to be mindful about wrapping up the stories for the current players.

“We’re doing our best to resist [adding new characters] for Season 5,” Matt told Indiewire. “We’re trying not to do that so we can focus on the OG characters, I guess.” His twin Ross added, “We’ve got a great cast of characters here, and actors, and any moment we’re spending with a new character, we’re taking time away from one of the other actors.”

What willStranger Thingsseason 5 be about?

Courtesy of Netflix

Though Netflix hasn’t revealed the official plotline for season 5 yet, it will likely follow the Hawkins kids as they try to defeat Vecna once and for all now that the Upside Down has invaded their town.

The Duffer brothers have teased their endgame for the show in previous interviews, and it sounds emotional. In a conversation withThe Wrap, Ross Duffer revealed that some Netflix executives actually teared up when they announced their plans for season 5.

“We do have an outline for Season 5 and we pitched it to Netflix and they really responded well to it,” he said. “I mean, it was hard. It’s the end of the story. I saw executives crying who I’ve never seen cry before and it was wild.”

David Harbour previously toldVarietythathe knows how the series endsand “it’s quite moving and quite beautiful.”

Speaking onTodayin January 2023, Sink teased that while she doesn’t know much about the upcoming season,she knew it would be “emotional.” She added, “Spoiler-free, just with the way my character ended in season 4, I have no idea what is going to happen. But I’ll be there.”

In August 2024, Ferguson told PEOPLE that while she couldn’t “say much” about what fans can expect in the upcoming episodes, filming was “going great.”

“I believe everybody is fascinated about the finale and about closing the last season in such an epic way,” she said.

David Harbour described the series finale as the “best episode they’ve ever done” while appearing on theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast in October 2024.

“The end of this episode when we were reading it — just us reading it — about halfway through, people started crying,” he said. “Then about the last 20 minutes, it was just uncontrollably crying, waves of different people."

When willStranger Thingsseason 5 be set?

From left: Gaten Matarazzo Joe Keery, Sadie Sink and Maya Hawke in season four ofStranger Things.Courtesy of Netflix

The show’s creators previously announced thatseason 5 will feature a time jumpto more accurately portraytheir young starswho have grown up before viewers' eyes during the show’s run.

In November 2024, Netflix’sfirst season 5 teaserrevealed that the show will be set in the fall of 1987 — a less significant time jump than fans were expecting considering season 4 was set in the spring of 1986.

How many episodes willStranger Thingsseason 5 have?

In the Duffer brothers' interview withThe Wrap, they teased that season 5 won’t be as lengthy as season 4, which clocks in atabout 13 hours long.

“I don’t think it’ll be as long,” Matt Duffer said. “The final few is going to be more like aReturn of the Jediin that … they’re going from the beginning. There’s going to be less ramp up. And I think people will understand what I’m talking about when they see the end of this season. It’s like, we’re just going.”

Matt’s initial predictions ended up being true. In November 2024,Tudumannounced that season 5 will consist of eight episodes, with the finale titled “The Rightside Up."

When doesStranger Thingsseason 5 film?

On Aug. 2, 2022, theStranger Thingswriters' room Twitter account teased that they were getting started on the script for season 5 asthey posted “Day 1” alongside a photoof a whiteboard with the text “Stranger Things 5.”

Though filming was originally scheduled tobegin in the summer of 2023, it waspostponed due to the writer’s strike.

In January 2024, Netflix announced that production had officially begun as they shared a black-and-white photo of the entire cast. Nearly a year later, filming wrapped in December 2024, and multiple members of the cast shared their thoughts on social media.

Alongside photos of the cast through the years, Finn Wolfhard wrote in anInstagrampost, “We justwrappedStranger ThingsSeason 5. I’m still in shock. We shot it for a year and I’ll miss all of my friends and our characters terribly.”

Noah Schnapp shared anInstagrampost with a lengthy caption of his own, writing, “Growing up I always felt like an outcast, unsure of where I fit in. Navigating life in the spotlight while carrying this feeling, through every awkward phase and embarrassing moment exposed for the world to see, has definitely been an unusual experience. But I’ve been honored to share it with my incredible co-stars, who understand it in a way that no one else can.”

Who is directingStranger Thingsseason 5?

In June 2023, Netflix confirmed that10 Cloverfield Lane’sDan Trachtenberg will direct an upcoming episodein the new season.

The Shawshank Redeptiondirector Frank Darabont confirmed that he’d come out of retirement to work onStranger Things’final season as well.

“What really dragged me out of retirement was that my wife and I really love this show,” he said in a September 2024 interview withThe Daily Beast. “Our content now is so filled with horrible people doing horrible things for greedy reasons butStranger Thingshas so much heart. That positivity is something I really responded to.”

Other details about the rest of the directors helming the upcoming episodes haven’t been announced.

When willStranger Thingsseason 5 premiere?

Ursula Coyote/Netflix

Though Netflix hasn’t announced an exact release date for the upcoming season, the streaming service did confirm that season 5 is comingsometime in 2025.

Since filming wasn’t complete until the end of 2024, it seems likely that it will premiere in the second half of the year.

Will there be anyStranger Thingsspinoffs?

While season 5 is the end ofStranger Things, it’s not the end of the franchise. The franchise is heading to the stage withStranger Things: The First Shadow, which debuted on London’s West End in December.

The Duffer brothers previouslyteased a potential spinoff ideain 2022. “There’s a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel,“Ross toldVariety. “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.”

Matt added, “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 toStranger Things or not?’ And definitely. Even if we took theStranger Thingstitle 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.”

Though they have kept tight-lipped about the plot of the spinoff,Stranger Thingsstar Finn Wolfhard is already in on the secret after he correctly guessed what the new series would be. “Finn Wolfhard, he wasn’t spitballing, he just went, ‘I think this would be a cool spin-off,'” Ross recounted. “And we were like, ‘How in the world…”

source: people.com