Stranger Things Season 5: What We Know About The Netflix Series So Far

Spoiler Warning: Major spoilers from the last season of Stranger Things are featured throughout this article (including the text immediately below), so please proceed at your own risk.

It feels like Stranger Things Season 4 ended so long ago, and while the heroes of Hawkins are all together for the first time in what seems like an eternity, the Hellfire Club isn’t out of the woods just yet. With the way things ended for Eleven, Hopper, Steve (who defied fan expectations and survived), and the rest of the gang during the conclusion of the record-breaking Netflix series’ latest offering, it should come as no surprise that Stranger Things Season 5 is somewhere down the road, waiting like Vecna in the shadows.

But what is surprising is the fact that we already know quite a bit about Season 5 of the Duffer Brothers’ incredibly popular sci-fi series at this point in time. Below are some  quick things about the upcoming Stranger Things Season 5, a.k.a. the fifth and final set of episodes, and the last ride for characters that many of us with a Netflix subscription have all come to know and love these past few years.  

What Is The The Stranger Things Season 5 Premiere Date?

At the time of this update in February 2024, Stranger Things Season 5 will be released in 2025, according to Deadline, which isn’t that much of a surprise. 

Both writing and filming was delayed thanks to the 2023 Writer’s Strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike, so it was basically impossible for anything to happen in Hollywood for a time – which means that Stranger Things won’t be appearing on any 2024 TV premiere schedule. However, that does mean 2025 can’t come soon enough for this epic last stand against Vecna. 

Most Of The Main Cast Is Coming Back

While we may not have an official confirmation of the release date or what Season 5 will entail, we do know who will be back, and thankfully, it looks like a good amount of the cast. Thanks to a post from the Netflix Twitter page, Stranger Things Season 5 is officially filming as of January 2024, and all of the main cast is featured in the picture. 

For a refresher, this includes the following cast members and more:

Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven

Eleven is one of several main characters and is able to move things with her mind. She is played by Millie Bobby Brown. The actress has since appeared in the Enola Holmes film series on Netflix, and will star in Damsel on Netflix. 

Finn Woldhard as Mike

Finn Wolfhard plays Mike, one of the core four boys in Stranger Things. Wolfhard has appeared in the IT films, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and is set to appear in the upcoming Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. 

Noah Schnapp as Will

Noah Schnapp plays Will, another one of the friends, who they were all looking for in Season 1. He has also had roles in The Peanuts Movie, Bridge of Spies, The Tutor, Hubie Halloween and more. 

Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin

Gaten Matarazzo plays Dustin in Stranger Things, another one of the main boys, and has also appeared in the Netflix show Prank Encounters, and Honor Society. 

Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas

Lucas is played by Caleb McLaughlin, the last of the four main friends of the series, and has since appeared in other movies such as High Flying Bird, Concrete Cowboy, and Shooting Stars. He’s also in The Book of Clarence. 

Natalia Dyer as Nancy

Natalia Dyer plays Nancy, Mike’s older sister and Jonathan’s girlfriend Dyer has appeared in films and shows such as Based on a True Story, Yes, God, Yes, and Velvet Buzzsaw, among others. 

Charlie Heaton as Jonathan

Charlie Heaton plays Jonathan, Will’s older brother, and Nancy’s boyfriend. Heaton has appeared in The New Mutants, No Future, The Souvenir Part II and more. 

David Harbour as Jim Hopper

Jim Hopper is the sheriff dad that we all want, and he is played by David Harbour. The actor has appeared in a variety of projects over the last few years, including Black Widow, Violent Night, Hellboy and more. He is set to come back to his role from Black Widow in the upcoming Thunderbolts. 

Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers

Winona Ryder plays Joyce Byers, the mother of Will and Jonathan. The actress has been around for some time, and has appeared in big films such as Girl, Interrupted, The Crucible, Reality Bites and more. She will also be reprising her role as Lydia in the upcoming Beetlejuice sequel. 

Sadie Sink as Max

Sadie Sink plays Max, one of the female friends of the core friend group, and falls into a coma at the end of the fourth season. Sink has appeared in the Fear Street film series, and also appeared in The Whale. 

Joe Keery as Steve

Joe Keery plays Steve, everyone’s favorite babysitter, and former boyfriend to Nancy. He’s appeared in Free Guy, as well as Spree, and is in the fifth season of Fargo. 

Maya Hawke as Robin

Maya Hawke plays Robin Steve’s closest friend. She has appeared in Do Revenge, Maestro, and more. 

To see them all together again fills my heart with so much joy. Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next. 

The Duffer Brothers Are Trying Hard Not To Include Any New Characters In Season 5

We've all seen how new characters end up doing on Stranger Things. Nine times out of ten, new characters that are introduced to the show are often killed off in the same season, like Bob, Alexei, and most recently, the fan-favorite Eddie Munson, who some still think might not be really dead. 

While new characters always seem to win fans over for every season of Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers have confirmed they are trying very hard not to include any new characters in the final season. 

In an interview with IndieWire in August 2022, Ross Duffer confirmed that they’re intending to focus on the characters we already know, instead of introducing new people in the last season. 

To be honest, I am all for this, because I am so tired of new characters getting introduced and then dying the same season. Thank God Robin wasn’t killed off in Season 3. She’s, like, the only new person who has survived thus far. Pray she makes it out of Season 5 alive. 

David Harbour teased to the Happy Sad Confused podcast in August 2023 that the ending of the series will wrap up the OG characters in a great way and that he was excited to go back and finish it out once the strike was over:

Trust me, we want to see this payoff as much as you do, Harbour.

Linda Hamilton Has Been Added To The Cast

Stranger Things has always had incredible performances from its cast throughout its five seasons, and now, a formidable Hollywood alumnus is coming to the show -- Linda Hamilton. 

Announced at June 2023's Netflix TUDUM event, it was confirmed that the Terminator veteran is joining the cast for Season 5 of the popular Netflix series. We're not sure what role she is going to be playing just yet, but honestly, having her here is just a treasure in and of itself, and I'm sure she's going to bring her A-game to Season 5 of the series in another badass role. 

Filming Has Begun As Of January 2024

Production was delayed thanks to the Writer’s Strike, but as confirmed in the Netflix Twitter post above, filming has officially begun as of January 2024. This was even further confirmed when Maya Hawke and Joe Keery (Robin and Steve) were pictured together on set on Netflix’s Twitter page, being the cute best friends they are:

Not that long after, we started to receive a lot more updates for the show. The Stranger Things Twitter page posted a picture of Gaten Matarazzo behind the scenes during filming in the first week:

The same page, they also posted a picture of Finn Wolfhard, saying that the second week of filming was complete:

And then, a week later, a cute photo of Millie Bobby Brown and the Duffer Brothers behind the scenes of the series showed up on the same feed:

Truthfully, I can’t freaking wait to see a trailer for this show after all these pictures from behind the scenes. 

When Does Season 5 of Stranger Things Take Place?

Though there has been no official confirmation, it appears as if there could be a major time jump when Stranger Things eventually returns. The fourth season ended in March 1986, when the majority of the characters were high school freshmen, but Eleven, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, and Max could be four years older by the time Season 5 comes around. That is if a supposed reveal from some behind-the-scenes images is to be believed.

In March 2024, Ross Duffer dropped a series of images from the Stranger Things Season 5 shoot on Instagram, including a close-up of a watch worn by Caleb McLaughlin as he’s holding Sadie Sink’s hand:

The date on the watch reads “Thursday, 11-2,” and that should point us in the direction of the season’s timeframe, specifically November 2, 1989, the only November 2 to fall on a Thursday in the ‘80s, as CinemaBlend’s Laura Hurley pointed out. If that ends up being accurate and the show does take place in November 1989, then we’ll have a three-and-a-half-year time jump.

Stranger Things Season 5 Will Be The Last Season

This bit of information was known months before Stranger Things Season 4 premiered, but that doesn’t make it any less prescient to those anxiously awaiting its return. Back in February 2022, the official Stranger Things Twitter account posted a screenshot of a statement from the Duffer Brothers that basically said the series will come to an end after the fifth season.

In the message to fans, the creative force behind the show explained that they always intended for Stranger Things to play out over the course of four or five seasons. But this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the end of the franchise, as the Duffers stressed there are “more exciting stories” to be told in the show’s universe.

Even so, the cast has shared how they feel about it, and the emotional feelings behind it, including Millie Bobby Brown. It'll be a sad day when it does end but we'll be here for the whole ride. 

David Harbour Says The Scripts For Season 5 Are “Terrific”

With Stranger Things Season 5 being such a highly anticipated installment of the franchise, many fans are hoping that the stories are going to be just as conclusive and well-told as we’ve expected from the show. Thankfully, David Harbour also confirmed on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast featured above that the scripts for Season 5 are “terrific:”

This podcast was released before the Writer’s Strike came to an end, and the scripts at this point are completely finished since filming has begun, so I can’t wait to see what is so terrific about these scripts. 

David Harbour also hinted during that same podcast that there might be a bit of a time jump too, saying that the “world is a different place” from the last time we saw these characters in the series: 

Will Byers Will Be A ‘Big Part And Focus’ Of Stranger Things Season 5

Even before Stranger Things Season 4 concluded, the internet was full of theories about Will Byers actually being a villain, and even though it is hard to say if that will be true or not, the character will be a major part of the show’s final season. When speaking with Collider in July 2022, Matt Duffer revealed that the younger Byers brother will be a “big part and focus” of the show moving forward, which was heavily teased throughout the final two episodes of Season 4.

Piggybacking off of that comment, Ross Duffer said that Will’s journey isn’t over yet and that his unresolved issues (like others on the show) will play a huge role in how the show is wrapped up throughout the final season.

In December 2022, the actor who plays Will, Noah Schnapp, said to Forbes that Will's story is concluded perfectly from what he's seen, and he can't wait for fans to see it. 

They even continued to push this when the Duffer Brothers confirmed that the last season is going to really focus around Will and his story, as reported in August 2023.

Stranger Things Season 5 Will Be ‘Pedal To The Metal’ From The Opening Scene

One thing that could make Stranger Things Season 5 different from previous entries in the series is the fact that it will jump straight into the action, as opposed to building up the characters. When speaking with The Wrap in July 2022, Matt Duffer said the final season of the popular Netflix show will be “pedal to metal from the opening scene.” 

Earlier in the interview, Duffer compared Stranger Things Season 5 to Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi in that the characters will be going straight from where things left off in the Season 4 finale. This makes even more sense when you consider the fact that the season ended with a sense of hope and dread similar to The Empire Strikes Back.

In March 2023, the Stranger Things writers, who have their own Twitter account, commented on the upcoming season, saying it was like a combination of two fan-favorite seasons:

I'm so excited for this -- something else that was teased recently is that apparently, there's a strong connection between Season 2 and Season 5. The writers also Tweeted that a re-watch of Season 2 would be a good idea:

Something else that we know is that we actually do have a little sneak peak of what the first scene is going to be from the Stranger Writers Twitter account, featuring a child signing, groaning trees and more: 

Can 2025 please come fast?  

The Plan Is To Have Stranger Things Season 5 Exclusively Take Place In Hawkins

The characters featured in Stranger Things Season 4 were scattered around the world in places like the Soviet Union, California, and Hawkins, but the Duffer Brothers have revealed that the final season will see those familiar faces back together in Hawkins once more. During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast in July 2022, Matt Duffer had this to say when asked if the show will exclusively take place where it all began:

Duffer would go on to stress that even though the show would only take place in one location this time around, it will feel bigger in terms of stakes and scale of the story.

Stranger Things Season 5 Episodes Won’t Be As Long As Season 4

Although each episode featured in Stranger Things Season 4 was over an hour long (and the finale clocked in a little under two-and-a-half hours), it doesn't sound like we should expect to see too many chapters running all that long when the show’s fifth season premieres at some point in the future. 

During a July 2022 appearance on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast (via Deadline), co-creator Matt Duffer explained that the reason the Season 4 episodes were so long was because there was so much character set-up required, a level of exposition that really won’t be all that necessary in Season 5. 

Even if the episodes won't be as long, the stars are sure that the last season is going to pack a punch. David Harbour spoke with Collider about the final season, and how he is sure the Duffer brothers are going to knock it out of the park. 

I just wish it could get here already!

But The Finale Will Probably Be Long

Despite the episodes being shorter in Stranger Things Season 5, it sounds like the series finale will be in the same ballpark as the Season 4 finale in terms of length. During the same interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast (also via Deadline), Matt Duffer stated that the finale will be as long as a feature film:

Duffer also joked about the wrap-up for Stranger Things Season 5, comparing it to The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, which famously featured one ending after another to bring closure to all the stories before the credits rolled.

This lines up with what the Duffer brothers said to The Hollywood Reporter in August 2022, where they said the finale of the series would be “pretty massive” in comparison to the rest of the episodes: 

The Show Plans To Keep The Binge-Watching Method Rather Than Weekly Releases

For those who might know now, Netflix has been experimenting with releasing some of their shows on a weekly basis. They did it back in November 2021 with the animated series Arcane, have done so with their reality shows like Love is Blind or The Circle, and have even done daily releases with shows like Cabinet of Curiosities. Even in 2023 they continued with their reality shows, releasing episodes each week, such as Squid Game: The Challenge. 

However, Stranger Things has always released several episodes at once for fans to watch. While the fourth season was split up into two parts, both included multiple episodes. Netflix intends to keep that model for the show for its final season. 

According to a panel that was moderated by Variety (via ScreenRant) the head of Netflix’s scripted series, Peter Friedlander, confirmed that Season 5 of the series would stick to the typical-binge method, where we would be given several episodes at once. So thankfully, no week-long waits for just one episode. 

Although we don’t have a set premiere date for when Stranger Things Season 5 will debut and take the world by storm, make sure to continue to check back for all the latest, and see if any of the questions we want answered are talked about, like what is the Demogorgon? 

And, if you’re looking for something to watch in the meantime, there are plenty of promising 2024 Netflix shows to hold you over while you wait.