alefelt georgeane vanalikah
Shawna Erholm
The Duffer Brothers have served as the series creators and showrunners since Stranger Things premiered on Netflix back in 2016. Now, with a two-volume season 4 in the rearview, there's only one chapter left to focus on for our favorite group of Hawkins kids.
With the promise of so much and so little left on the horizon, we've gathered everything we know so far about Stranger Things season 5, including release date, plot details, cast info, and more. Below, check out everything you need to know about Stranger Things 5 and click on a topic to jump there directly:
The clip then takes us inside the lot where the show is filming, sharing sneak peeks of Linda Hamilton entering her trailer, Vecna's return, Lucas and Max's reunion, a slimy, menacing dark hole, walls engulfed by the vines of the Upside Down, Maya Hawke and Joe Keery, and so many more exciting reveals.
Even with both strikes now over, there is still no confirmed or estimated release date for Stranger Things 5. Pre-strikes, the Duffer Brothers had assured fans that there would be a much shorter wait than the three-year gap in 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 said during an interview with Variety in the summer of 2022. How ironic.
However, don't get your hopes up just yet. In March 2024, after three months of filming, Millie Bobby Brown revealed that Stranger Things 5 still had nine whole months left of filming during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show. That means the season likely won't wrap up filming until December 2024 or January 2025.
Given the extensive visual effects the show demands and the in-demand schedules of the young cast of rising stars, it's likely that this new season will take even longer to hit the streamer. So, doing some basic maths, we probably won't get Stranger Things 5 until late 2025 at the earliest, or, most likely, early 2026.
Uh, we're pretty sure you do, sir! Quinn had answered similarly at a convention after a fan asked during a Q&A whether he would return for season 5. He dragged out his response with cheeky smirks and some hesitance, finally answering: "I do know...but I'm not telling you."
Max became a victim of Vecna's curse in the two-part finale and was technically dead for a full minute before Eleven restarted her heart with her powers. The last we see of Max, she's hospitalized and in a coma. Eleven tries to communicate with her by searching for her mind, but there is, tragically, no response.
When asked about Max's fate while speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2022, Sink was quick to point out that Max has a pulse and is technically still alive and present in the show. "I'm not sure where we're going and what Max's state is. It's definitely all up in the air right now," said Sink. "I'm just as excited as everyone else to find out where Max is and how she's doing."
Jamie Campbell Bower, who portrayed this season's villain Vecna/Henry/One, also hinted at a S5 return to EW, noting the scene where Vecna should be dead, but suddenly disappears. On August 29, JCB opened up further to NME, teasing that Vecna will most likely be back for season 5, and he'll be back with a hell of a vengeance.
So far, a total of four new cast members have been confirmed to join Stranger Things 5: child actors Jake Connelly and Nell Fisher (previously seen in Bookworm), Alex Breaux (Waco: The Aftermath, See, When They See Us), and The Terminator star Linda Hamilton. (You can spot glimpses of the new cast in the BTS video Netflix released on July 15, at the top of this story.)
While speaking to IndieWire in August 2022, the Duffer Brothers broke down their rationale behind bringing new characters on the show and praised the adaptability and performances of actors brought on the series after season 1, like Joseph Quinn, Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, and Dacre Montgomery. Though they avoid introducing multiple new core characters in a given season, the Duffer Brothers admitted that new characters can bring fresh ideas, just like new plot devices or new creatures to battle.
With such a finite amount of time left with the OG Hawkins gang, it makes sense that the Stranger Things writers want to make sure that fans aren't left feeling shorted by the series finale. This means the four new faces seen around town in Stranger Things 5 will likely be the only additions.
Back in the summer of 2022, Noah Schnapp confirmed that his character Will was gay, and that Will was in love with Finn's character Mike. Six months later, Schnapp came out as gay on TikTok, much to the love and support of his fans, family, and castmates. Schnapp reflected on the impact Will had on his own self-actualization in his August 2023 cover story for Variety.
The Duffer Brothers have been hinting for years that this isn't the last of the Stranger Things universe, and as the end of the original series nears, they have more to share about expanding the franchise. "There's a version of [a spinoff] developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel," Ross said while speaking to 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."
As of right now, the live-action spin-off Wolfhard guessed correctly is just one of multiple projects lined up for development at Netflix by the Duffers. A prequel stage play titled Stranger Things: The First Shadow debuted on London's West End in November 2023, and is set to close in August 2024 as the show prepares to transfer to Broadway in 2025.
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages.[6]
Launched on January 16, 2007, nearly a decade after Netflix, Inc. began its pioneering DVD-by-mail movie rental service, Netflix is the most-subscribed video on demand streaming media services, with over 277.7 million paid memberships in more than 190 countries as of July 2024.[5][7] By 2022, "Netflix Original" productions accounted for half of its library in the United States and the namesake company had ventured into other categories, such as video game publishing of mobile games through its flagship service. As of October 2023, Netflix is the 23rd most-visited website in the world, with 23.66% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 5.84% and Brazil at 5.64%.[8][9]
Initially, Netflix offered a per-rental model for each DVD but introduced a monthly subscription concept in September 1999.[20] The per-rental model was dropped by early 2000, allowing the company to focus on the business model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees, or per-title rental fees.[21] In September 2000, during the dot-com bubble, while Netflix was suffering losses, Hastings and Randolph offered to sell the company to Blockbuster for $50 million. John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster, thought the offer was a joke and declined, saying, "The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown."[22][23] While Netflix experienced fast growth in early 2001, the continued effects of the dot-com bubble collapse and the September 11 attacks caused the company to hold off plans for its initial public offering (IPO) and to lay off one-third of its 120 employees.[24]
DVD players were a popular gift for holiday sales in late 2001, and demand for DVD subscription services were "growing like crazy", according to chief talent officer Patty McCord.[25] The company went public on May 23, 2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at US$15.00 per share.[26] In 2003, Netflix was issued a patent by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to cover its subscription rental service and several extensions.[27] Netflix posted its first profit in 2003, earning $6.5 million on revenues of $272 million; by 2004, profit had increased to $49 million on over $500 million in revenues.[28] In 2005, 35,000 different films were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day.[29]
In 2004, Blockbuster introduced a DVD rental service, which not only allowed users to check out titles through online sites but allowed for them to return them at brick and-mortar stores.[30] By 2006, Blockbuster's service reached two million users, and while trailing Netflix's subscriber count, was drawing business away from Netflix. Netflix lowered fees in 2007.[28] While it was an urban legend that Netflix ultimately "killed" Blockbuster in the DVD rental market, Blockbuster's debt load and internal disagreements hurt the company.[30]
On April 4, 2006, Netflix filed a patent infringement lawsuit in which it demanded a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Blockbuster's online DVD rental subscription program violated two patents held by Netflix. The first cause of action alleged Blockbuster's infringement of copying the "dynamic queue" of DVDs available for each customer, Netflix's method of using the ranked preferences in the queue to send DVDs to subscribers, and Netflix's method permitting the queue to be updated and reordered.[31] The second cause of action alleged infringement of the subscription rental service as well as Netflix's methods of communication and delivery.[32] The companies settled their dispute on June 25, 2007; terms were not disclosed.[33][34][35][36]
On October 1, 2006, Netflix announced the Netflix Prize, $1,000,000 to the first developer of a video-recommendation algorithm that could beat its existing algorithm Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%. On September 21, 2009, it awarded the $1,000,000 prize to team "BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos".[37] Cinematch, launched in 2000, was a system that recommended movies to its users, many of which might have been entirely new to the user.[38][39]
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