It’s safe to say that Stranger Things Season 4 ended with the world literally cracking open, and now the vibe in Hawkins is officially apocalyptic. Furthermore, what started as a love letter to the ‘80s has become a full-blown nightmarish situation with a brutal war that’s tearing the whole town apart. Also, after several seasons of foreboding, the dreaded Upside Down is here in all its horrifying glory. Perhaps the most ominous aspect of the whole thing is that Vecna is still out there, licking his wounds and waiting for round two.
So what’s next? Stranger Things Season 5 is hitting the fast-forward button. The show will pick up a whopping 18 months later, taking its story to 1987. That’s a massive time jump and a genius move on the part of the Duffer Brothers. Why? It gives them the space to show viewers how their favorite characters were scarred by grief and trauma and how they’ve grown from it. Beyond this, the season will be split into three parts, with longer episodes than fans are typically used to, promising a final chapter that will be bigger, faster, and more emotional.
Where Did the ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Finale Leave Hawkins?
Calling the events of the season 4 finale an absolute bloodbath would be putting things mildly. The gang may have won, but it was a hollow victory that cost them almost everything. To illustrate, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) may have taken a brutal beating, but he survived the events of the season. Suffice it to say that the events of Season 5 will prove how costly that mistake was. Beyond that, there’s also the fact that Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) heroic rescue of Max (Sadie Sink) now feels tragically hollow as Max is trapped in a coma, a ghost of her former self. Add to that Lucas’ (Caleb McLaughlin) devastation, and the fact that the entire town of Hawkins was physically split open by massive gates to the Upside Down.
That final shot of the creepy, ash falling wasn’t just for aesthetics alone, it was a symbol that their world was on the brink of destruction. Meanwhile, Eddie Munson’s (Joseph Quinn) heroic sacrifice, which includes his iconic “Master of Puppets” solo, to buy time still hits fans like a gut punch. His seeming death marked the end of Dustin’s (Gaten Matarazzo) childhood and he will undoubtedly be carrying that weight into this final season. Consequently, with all these tragedies, the mood will understandably be heavier and darker in the final season. It’s safe to say that the days of bike rides and arcade games are over for Eleven and her friends.
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When Will ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Arrive on Netflix and What Can We Expect?
Netflix has come up with a unique schedule to send off one of its biggest productions ever. Fans and the general audience would have to mark three dates on their calendars because the end is coming in three massive chunks. Volume 1, which includes the first 4 episodes of Stranger Things Season 5, drops on November 26, 2025. Volume 2 follows just under a month later with 3 more episodes dropping on Christmas Day, 2025. Lastly, Netflix plans to drop the series finale on New Year’s Eve, 2025, in more than 350 theaters on the same night so that fans can experience the end together on the big screen. Epic move!
With that settled, the question now becomes which cast members will be involved in this last fight? It’s already been confirmed that the majority of the main cast will be returning. That means that Millie Bobby Brown will return as Eleven, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin, Finn Wolfhard as Mike, Noah Schnapp as Will,, Natalia Dyer as Nancy, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan, Winona Ryder as Joyce, and David Harbour as Hopper. But they’re also bringing some new friends to the party, including Terminator icon Linda Hamilton, who will play a leader of the military outfit in Hawkins. Her character is reportedly a “badass” who knows about the government’s shady past.
Now that we know who’s returning, what will this farewell party look like? The plan is simple: find Vecna and end him for good. That task sounds easier said than done, though, because Hawkins is now a militarized zone, and worse, Eleven is public enemy number one; a situation that has forced her to go into hiding. Furthermore, expect to see fulfillment of the Duffer brothers’ promise to bring everything full circle and focus on the original characters and relationships that started it all. Ultimately, this won’t be just an ending. It will feel like saying goodbye to family, with all the tears that come with that. Don’t take our word for it, even Harbour and his co-stars admittedly got emotional after reading the final scripts.
This is it, people! The final ride. Grab your drinks, get your friends together, and rewatch your favorite episodes and past seasons on Netflix.
