As we all wait for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, which is expected to come out sometime in late 2025, I can't help but think about how it feels like so much hangs on this final handful of stories. While the pressure is rising, executive producer and director Shawn Levy has started to tease what we should expect from our last quest in Hawkins, and I'm thankfully feeling relieved.
As someone who’s seen every episode, it’s a relief to see what he has to say. While speaking with People during the 76th DGA Awards, the Deadpool & Wolverine director chose his words very carefully. No plot spoilers are to be seen, as one would expect, but commenting on how this swan song season handles the characters of Hawkins, Indiana, Levy offered the following:
If I was a fan who had nothing to do with Stranger Things, I would presume that the final season was going to be big in scale. But I'd also want to note that the heart and soul of that show, which is its characters, are intact and are as central as spectacle. And indeed, they are.
“Big in scale” is kind of an understatement, especially after Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2’s ending, which set our heroes at a bit of a crossroads. That uncertainty has to be crushing for anyone with a Netflix subscription waiting to return to this '80s-fueled adventure. And with characters like Eduardo Franco's Argyle not returning, and Max in a coma, there are tons of character-driven questions for Season 5 to answer.
However, based on Levy's comments, I'm feeling relieved that we'll get answers about these characters and meaningful stories about the others that we've been following since their first D&D campaign in Season 1.
Stranger Things 5 resumed production in January, and it's not widely known just how far along things are at the moment. At the same time, Shawn Levy’s assurance that the “heart and soul” are still very much intact for these final acts is something that shouldn’t be underestimated. After all, he’s been with the series since day one, and he’d definitely know what that sort of fidelity looks like.
It's hard to believe that Stranger Things is coming to a close, even if we're also coming up on almost 10 years since the series debuted on Netflix. Whatever the end leads to, the race to the finish is going to be one of those journeys that should be as fun and rewarding as the destination. And you can be sure the moment those credits come up for the last time, the internet is going to explode in reaction, for better or worse.
While we’re still in a holding pattern in connection to Stranger Things Season 5, you can be sure that all four previous seasons are waiting for a rewatch. Head over to Netflix, and see if maybe you can piece together an intriguing theory on where Mike, Eleven, and the rest of the core characters could be heading in these final hours.
