The end of Stranger Things: all the news from the Netflix show’s fifth and final season

It’s a weird time in the Stranger Things community. Following a monthslong lead-up to a finale that was so big it screened in theaters, the show’s superfans have been spending their time dissecting the fifth season in order to prove that a hidden ninth episode is coming that represents the true ending of Stranger Things. So far that hasn’t happened — but that doesn’t mean Netflix is done with the series. The streamer just released One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, a two hour-long documentary about, well, the making of season 5. And while it’s far removed from a secret episode and provides little in the way of new conspiracy fodder, it does provide some insights into how the creative team wrapped up Netflix’s biggest show.

My biggest takeaway from watching One Last Adventure is the sheer scale of the final season. Obviously Netflix was going to go big here, but even still it’s impressive to see; the Duffer brothers used 12 stages for filming, including a backlot where the team built downtown Hawkins, and that’s in addition to scenes filmed on location. It’s especially cool seeing some of the craftspeople work on the bigger set pieces, like building and painting the massive, pulsing tendrils that make up Vecna’s lair, or figuring out how exactly to design an office building that is also melting while characters move through it. There are a number of sequences in the doc where the crew stress over just how they’re going to pull off the ideas the Duffers have.

The parking lot was packed. That’s the first Strange Thing.

A little background. Just about every mall is struggling now, but the Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, Pennsylvania is more or less comatose. As Defector’s Dan McQuade, a lifelong Pennsylvanian and mall fan, wrote in his fond remembrance of the shopping center, the once bustling complex is mostly a shuttered ghost town, with half of it set to be demolished. There are only two real reasons to go there: a well-stocked Barnes & Noble and the AMC movie theater.

It has been a decade since the Stranger Things phenomenon began, and the Duffer brothers have had ample time to craft a strong finish to their breakout hit series. But the beginning of the show’s fifth and final season feels like a frantic race to the end.

While Stranger Things wasn’t Netflix’s first breakout hit, it catapulted the streamer to a new level of pop cultural prominence by telling a wildly captivating story that got everyone talking. Modern day nostalgia for the ‘80s never really went away, but Stranger Things kicked off a new wave of shows and movies that made it feel like other studios were doing everything in their power to re-create the Duffer Brothers’ success. Stranger Things was a momentous phenomenon that didn’t show many signs of losing steam over the course of its first few seasons.

When Stranger Things first premiered in 2016, Netflix was still courting new subscribers with splashy original projects that were meant to have broad audience appeal. The company had solidified itself as a major player in the streaming wars with massive hits like House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black, and a collection of live-action Marvel series. The shows were all very different, but they each felt like part of an ambitious plan to establish Netflix as the gravitational center of a new pop cultural era.

Those big, watercooler tentpole projects made Netflix feel like a platform worth subscribing to because of how large they loomed in the public consciousness. Especially in its early seasons, Stranger Things was thrilling to watch as a new sci-fi / horror series steeped in nostalgia. But it was also fascinating to see the show become a global phenomenon that dominated online discourse and inspired other studios to tell more stories set in the ’80s.

Netflix is bringing the Stranger Things series finale to theaters. The show’s final episode will hit theaters at the same time it premieres on the streaming service on December 31st at 8PM ET. It’ll be available in more than 350 theaters across the US and Canada, and will run through January 1st, 2026.

The finale, titled “The Rightside Up,” is two hours long and marks the first time a Netflix episode premieres simultaneously on its platform and in theaters, according to Deadline. Netflix previously held screenings for Stranger Things 4: Volume 2 and gave some of its original films, like KPop Demon Hunters, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a brief theatrical run, mainly to maintain awards eligibility.

It’s been a long time coming, but we finally have a real look at the end of Stranger Things. Netflix just released the first teaser trailer for the show’s fifth season, which will also be its last when it starts streaming later this year. As was alluded to in the finale of season 4, the new trailer — which, despite being called a teaser, clocks in at nearly three minutes long — is focused on the major showdown with Vecna that will presumably end the string of supernatural bad luck in Hawkins, Indiana for good.

Here’s the official setup for the finale, according to Netflix:

Stranger Things’ fifth and final season finally has a premiere date.

During its live Tudum event, Netflix announced that Stranger Things’ fifth season will actually be split into three parts. Volume 1 is set to debut on November 26th, Volume 2 premieres on December 25th, and The Finale drops on New Years Eve. Along with the premiere dates, Netflix also shared a teaser showing off some of what Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin, (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Max (Sadie Sink) are going to be up against when the show returns.

Netflix has a busy year of premieres ahead, but it might be most notable for what’s ending. As the streaming service continues to push into a new era full of live events, reality TV, and ad sales, it’s also saying goodbye to arguably its two biggest franchises, with both Stranger Things and Squid Game wrapping up in 2025. Once upon a time, tentpole hits like those series were pivotal for Netflix — people signed up for them and often unsubscribed when they went away.

But singular blockbusters aren’t as necessary for the company’s overall success any longer. And it’s possible we might not see anything quite like those two shows again.

We still don’t have a firm premiere date, but Netflix has officially confirmed that the fifth — and final — season of Stranger Things will start streaming next year. Aside from that, the streamer also released the titles for all eight episodes in the new season, which might provide some hints as to what to expect:

That’s not a lot of info, but then again we haven’t heard much since season 4 wrapped up in 2022. Sarah Connor has joined the cast, and production kicked off at the beginning of this year, but aside from that Netflix has been very quiet about the finale of its biggest property. Of course, there are some spinoffs, including an upcoming animated show and a stage show that doubles as a prequel, as the company looks to extend the franchise’s life beyond the main story.