"Stranger Thing" Season 5 Isn't Gonna Be Out For A Whiiiiiiiile, But Here's Everything We Know Anyways

Get ready for one last trip into the Upside Down...

It's still a loooooong way off, but Stranger Things Season 5 is officially on its way.

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While you wait, here's every single thing we know about the new season so far:

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1. Season 5 will be the last season of the show, so get ready to say goodbye to Hawkins. 😢

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But fret not! Netflix has already announced a spinoff, so it's only goodbye for now.

2. Filming for the new season was meant to start in May or June, according to cast members...

3. ...but the Duffer brothers confirmed that everything was on hold until the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are over.

Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins. 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

— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) May 6, 2023

Twitter: @strangerwriters / Via Twitter: @strangerwriters

4. The good news: The WGA strike is over! The writers got a new, fair deal with the AMPTP, and the Duffers confirmed that they were back at work on Season 5.

pic.twitter.com/pnvqOpko25

— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) September 27, 2023

Twitter: @strangerwriters / Via Twitter: @strangerwriters

Now it's just a matter of waiting for SAG-AFTRA to get their fair deal so that filming can start.

5. We know that the first episode is called "Chapter One: The Crawl" and was written by the Duffers.

Netflix/@netflix / Via instagram.com

6. Vecna's still around.

Steve Dietl/Netflix

When the Byers and Eleven return to Hawkins, Will senses Vecna's presence, and chillingly states that he's "hurting but still alive." He goes on to say that Vecna will not stop until he's taken everything and everyone — so the gang must kill him if they want the terror to end.

As if Will's Spidey senses tingling and his ominous speech wasn't enough to confirm that Vecna will be returning, Vecna actor Jamie Campbell Bower teased that he knows all about Season 5, saying "Take from that what you will." Welp!

7. The characters who were still alive at the end of Season 4 will return for Season 5, so you can expect to see all of the main cast.

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

That includes Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Gaten Matarazzo, Priah Ferguson, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Brett Gelman, and Jamie Campbell Bower. 

8. LINDA HAMILTON, THEE LINDA HAMILTON, will be joining the cast as well.

Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images

We don't know anything about her character yet, but the iconic action star is a huge fan of the show. "I don’t know how to be a fangirl and an actress at the same time," she said during her video announcement at Netflix's recent Tudum event. "I’m gonna work on that."

9. The plot details for Season 5 have been kept safely under wraps, but Noah Schnapp has teased that Will's fate will be central to the show's endgame.

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

He told Forbes back in December that "the story started with Will, and it'll end with Will." He also said that he thinks the ending is "just perfect." As a reminder, the show started with Will's kidnapping in the Upside Down and his ~connection~ to the creatures there has been an ongoing plot line since his rescue.

Speaking about Season 5, Matt Duffer told Collider: "Will's going to be a big part and focus. We're starting to see his coming of age, really. Which has been challenging for a number of reasons, some of which are supernatural. But you're starting to see him come into his own."

10. David Harbour recently said that he knows how the series will end, and called it "very, very moving."

Jamie Mccarthy / Getty Images

"That is the term I will use…It's a hell of an undertaking, too," he said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. I mean, the set pieces and the things in the scripts that we saw are bigger than anything we've done in the past."

11. Sadie Sink has repeatedly stated she doesn't know Max's fate, but the Duffers did confirm that she's braindead at the end of Season 4.

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

According to the Duffers: "She's braindead, but yeah, she's alive. She's blind, and all of her bones are broken, but yeah, she's doing great!"

Brain death is technically irreversible within the limits of modern medicine — but this is Stranger Things we're talking about, and Max is good friends with a supernatural being who (sort of) resurrected her at the end of Season 4.

As for Sadie's theories, she thinks that if Max does wake up, she'll be torn between fleeing Hawkins and helping her friends, and also that she'll reunite with Lucas. Duffers, if you see this: please, I beg you, let her wake up.

12. Eddie is definitely dead though, sorry.

Courtesy of Netflix

The Duffer brothers confirmed that Eddie is most definitely dead on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, but said that his death will have "huge repercussions" among the survivors in Season 5.

13. The showrunners have also said that the tone of the final episodes will be more like Season 1, but that the scale will be more like Season 4.

Season 5 is like if season 1 and 4 had a baby. And then that baby was injected with steroids.

— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) March 21, 2023

Twitter: @strangerwriters / Via Twitter: @strangerwriters

14. If they're aiming to match the scope of Season 4, that implies that the budget will be super high for Season 5 as well.

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

The Season 4 budget was reportedly $30 million per episode, which adds up to $270 million in total.

15. The Duffer brothers and Shawn Levy said that their pitch meeting for Season 5 left the Netflix executives in tears, which Matt Duffer considers "a good sign."

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

He said: "We outlined Season 5 and pitched it to Netflix. Everyone there had also been present when we first pitched the show in 2015. While we were strangers then, we were now friends, and there were a lot of tears when it was over. It’s just been an extraordinary journey for all of us, and while it’s hard to believe that we’re approaching the end, we feel incredibly lucky to have such amazing partners."

16. The Duffers also told IndieWire that they tried not to add new characters to the upcoming season so that they could focus on the original cast.

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

"Whenever we introduce a new character, we want to make sure that they're going to be an integral part of the narrative," Ross Duffer explained. "But every time we do that, we're nervous because you go, 'We've got a great cast of characters here and actors, and any moment we're spending with a new character, we're taking away time from one of the other actors.' So we're just very, very careful about who we're introducing."

17. Executive producer Shawn Levy also said that ST 5 "will definitely be more Hawkins-centric" compared to all the globe-trotting we saw in Season 4.

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

It was really more "country-trotting" since most of the locations were still in the US, but Joyce had to go all the way to Russia to get her man!

18. There may be a time jump in Season 5!

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Speaking to TVLine, Ross Duffer said, "I'm sure we will do a time jump." Now, that was way back in June 2022 before the season was even written, so things could have changed since then. But while we're speculating: I think it's possible that the time jump won't serve a super dramatic purpose and is simply a way to acknowledge how much the young cast grows up between seasons.

19. Don't expect the feature length episodes of Season 4 — except for the finale.

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

Every single episode of Season 4 was over an hour long, with the finale clocking in at a staggering 150 minutes. The Duffers explained why they don't think the new episodes will be as long: "The only reason we don’t expect to be as long is because, typically — or this season, if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery." That said, they do anticipate the last episode to be pretty long.

20. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that Season 5 won't be a huge season of television.

"There’s no way to be contiguous with Season 4, and not, frankly, expand scale and depth," Shawn Levy explained to Total Film Magazine. "It’s major, major, cinematic storytelling that happens to be called a TV series. Stranger Things 5 is as big as any of the biggest movies that we see."

21. Finn Wolfhard said he thinks the final season could premiere in 2025, so don't expect it any earlier than that.

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

How are you hoping Stranger Things will wrap things up? Do you have any theories? Comment below!