15 Things We Already Know About "Stranger Things" Season 5 — Including That It's The Last Season
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It's still a loooooong way off, but Stranger Things Season 5 is officially on its way.
Netflix
While you wait, here's every single thing we know about the new season so far:
Netflix
1.Season 5 will be the last season of the show, so get ready to say goodbye to Hawkins. 😢
But fret not! Netflix has already announced a spinoff, so it's only goodbye for now.
2.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.
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.
3.Filming for the new season was meant to start in May or June, according to cast members...
4. ...but the Duffer brothers confirmed that everything is on hold until the WGA strike is 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
5.But we do know that the first episode is called "Chapter One: The Crawl" and was written by the Duffers.
6.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.
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.
7.Sadie Sink has repeatedly stated she doesn't know Max's fate, but the Duffers said that her coma will have "major repercussions" for the new season.
That's not confirmation that she'll ever wake up, but at least it means that we'll find out either way...and I'm begging the writers to please let her wake up.
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.
8. 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
9.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.
The Season 4 budget was reportedly $30 million per episode, which adds up to $270 million in total.
10.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."
11.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.
"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."
12.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.
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!
13.There may be a time jump in Season 5!
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.
14.Don't expect the feature length episodes of Season 4 — except for the finale.
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.
15.Finn Wolfhard said he thinks the final season could premiere in 2025, so don't expect it any earlier than that.
