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

This post contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4, Vol. 2.

Stranger Things is officially coming to an end.

Following the release of season 4, part 2 on July 1, 2022, the show's upcoming fifth season will be its last. The show's creators Matt and Ross Duffer announced the beginning of the end in February 2022 when they revealed that the "supersized" season 4 would be the penultimate season.

"Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger 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, the cast and creators have already teased what's in store, including the episode titles.

Here's everything we know about Stranger Things season 5.

Which cast members are returning for Stranger Things season 5?

As Netflix announced that the show had begun production for the final season, they shared a cast photo, confirming who will return. Returning main cast members include Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery and Maya Hawke.

The cast photo also included Brett Gelman, Priah Ferguson, Cara Buono, Amybeth McNulty and Jamie Campbell Bower, who joined the cast in season 4 as the 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 of Stranger Things season 5?

In June 2023, Netflix announced that Linda Hamilton will join the cast of Stranger Things for the fifth and final season.

Though the Terminator star is joining the ranks, back in August 2022, the Duffer Brothers revealed they were trying their best not to add any new characters into 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 will Stranger Things season 5 be about?

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 with The 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 told Variety that he knows how the series ends and "it's quite moving and quite beautiful."

Speaking with Today's Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush in 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 the Happy Sad Confused podcast 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 will Stranger Things season 5 be set?

The show's creators previously announced that season 5 will feature a time jump to more accurately portray their young stars who have grown up before viewers' eyes during the show's run.

"Ideally, we'd have shot [seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that," Ross told TVLine. "So these are all discussions we're going to have with our writers when we start the room up."

In November 2024, Netflix's first season 5 teaser revealed 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 will Stranger Things season 5 have?

In the Duffer brothers' interview with The Wrap, they teased that season 5 won't be as lengthy as season 4, which clocks in at about 13 hours long.

"I don't think it'll be as long," Matt Duffer said. "The final few is going to be more like a Return of the Jedi in 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, Tudum announced that season 5 will consist of eight episodes, with the finale titled “The Rightside Up."

When does Stranger Things season 5 film?

On Aug. 2, 2022, the Stranger Things writers' room Twitter account teased that they were getting started on the script for season 5 as they tweeted "Day 1" alongside a photo of a whiteboard with the text "Stranger Things 5."

During the Middle East Film & Comic Con in March 2023, Harbour teased that filming is expected to begin in summer 2023. "We're walking into season five. I've got a couple more months to train. We start shooting that in June, though, and that will be the final season," he said, according to Collider.

In May 2023, PEOPLE confirmed that production on the fifth and final season of Stranger Things had been postponed amid the ongoing writer's strike. Duffer Brothers — who serve as creators, executive producers and showrunners of the hit Netflix series — first announced the delay on Twitter.

"Writing does not stop when filming begins," Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer wrote on the official Twitter account for the Stranger Things writers. "While we're excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then — over and out. #wgastrong."

In January 2024, Netflix announced that production had officially begun as they shared a black-and-white photo of the entire cast.

Who is directing Stranger Things season 5?

In June 2023, Netflix confirmed that 10 Cloverfield Lane's Dan Trachtenberg will direct an upcoming episode in the new season. Other details about the rest of the directors helming the upcoming episodes haven't been announced.

When will Stranger Things season 5 premiere?

Netflix hasn't revealed an official release date for season 5 yet, but the show's creators have confirmed that it will definitely be a shorter break than the 3-year gap between seasons 3 and 4.

"The gap should be quite a bit shorter this time, due to the fact that we already have an initial outline, and we can't imagine there will be another six-month forced hiatus," the Duffer brothers told Variety.

Meanwhile, David Harbour shared an update in September 2022, jokingly telling Entertainment Tonight, "You'll see it in another 15 years when it's able to be released when we've shot it."

Will there be any Stranger Things spinoffs?

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

In April 2023, Netflix announced plans for an animated series based on the hit drama had been greenlit. The still-untitled project will be produced by The Duffer Brothers through Upside Down Pictures, alongside Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen on behalf of 21 Laps, and Eric Robles through Flying Bark Productions.

The Duffer brothers previously teased a potential spinoff idea in 2022. "There's a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel," Ross told Variety. "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 to Stranger Things or not?' And definitely. Even if we took the Stranger Things title 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 Things star 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…'"

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Stranger Things season 4 is currently streaming on Netflix.