Stranger Things season 5: Release date, spoilers, cast, news and traile

 

All good things must come to an end—even Stranger Things. The hit Netflix sci-fi thriller, which first arrived in the summer of 2016, will conclude with its fifth season, which has no release date yet. The show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, announced the news with a bittersweet letter to fans on Feb. 17.

Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,” they wrote. “At the time, we predicted the story would last four to 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.”

With Stranger Things’ season 4 now in the books (with quite the jam-packed finale), the wait for the next and final chapter is on. Here’s what we know so far.

stranger things letter from matt and ross dufferWhen will Stranger Things 5 be released?

It’s too early to say, but we can look to past seasons for reference. As the Duffers say in their letter, it took almost two years to create the fourth season, which was released in two parts, on May 27 and July 1. While filming ST4 during the height of the pandemic and lockdown surely involved its own delays, producing a massive finale season will likely require a long wait, too. The earliest we can expect to see ST5 is likely late 2023, if not well into 2024.

David Harbour all but confirmed this theory. “I think we’ll [shoot] next year. They’re finishing writing it this year, and they need to prep and stuff, so hopefully it’ll be this year,” he told GQ. “But I think that’s the plan. So it’d probably come out mid-2024, based on our track record.”

What will the final season be about?

How do you sum up this epic story, one that transcends dimensions and stretches far beyond the borders of Hawkins, Indiana? The Duffers have a plan; we’re just not privy to it yet. We do know one thing, though: Expect tears.

“We do have an outline for season 5 and we pitched it to Netflix and they really responded well to it,” Ross Duffer told The Wrap in May 2022. “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.”

Actor David Harbour, who plays Hopper, had previously confirmed to Variety that he’d learned the season 5 ending and thought it “quite moving and quite beautiful.”

In the Duffer Brothers’ February letter to fans, they added, “There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes.” Might that mean a spin-off in the future? “But first we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension called the Upside Down. As always, we are gracious for your patience and your support.”