When does ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 come out on Netflix? Release dates, trailer, cast, episode titles and everything we know so far

The final chapter of the Stranger Things saga is almost here, and it’s so huge, it’s heading to theaters. Netflix‘s sci-fi horror show, which is releasing the first volume of its fifth season on Nov. 26, has just announced that it will be screening its final episode in more than 350 cinemas across the United States and Canada. The screenings will start on Dec. 31 and run through Jan. 1, 2026.

Ross and Matt Duffer, the brothers who created the series, expressed their excitement in a statement to Netflix’s Tudum, calling the theatrical release something they have “dreamed about for years.”

“Getting to see it on the big screen, with incredible sound, picture, and a room full of fans, feels like the perfect — dare we say bitchin’ — way to celebrate the end of this adventure,” the Duffer brothers said.

Back in September, Ross Duffer posted on Instagram about wrapping up “Volume 1” of the new season.

“Chapters Three and Four: locked, mixed, scored, colored… Volume One is DONE,” the TV creator wrote alongside snapshots from the editing bay. “‘The Turnbow Trap’ is the most classic Stranger Things-y episode of the season. It’s got all our favorite things. Directed by one of our idols Frank Darabont (Shawshank! Green Mile! Walking Dead!) — who literally came out of retirement for this. He crushed it, obviously.”

He also teased that the episode titled “Sorcerer,” the subtitle of the fourth episode, is “MASSIVE,” calling it “as big as any finale we’ve ever done, and the most logistically insane shoot of our lives. We’re still recovering.”

Stranger Things fans also received breadcrumbs of information on Aug. 3 when Ross Duffer shared on Instagram that they had wrapped the first two episodes of the fifth season. “Chapters One and Two: locked, mixed, scored, colored, DONE,” he wrote in the caption.

Ross Duffer really hyped up the second episode, writing, “‘The Vanishing of…’ (yeah yeah you think you know who blah blah) has by far the craziest cold open we’ve ever done. One of the sequences we’re most proud of this season.” He redacted the name of who disappears in his posted picture of the “Chapter Two” title card. He ended the post by teasing, “I would tell you runtimes, but I was told not to. At a later date, I guess.”

An official teaser trailer dropped in July, featuring our favorite Indiana teens coming back for one more round of interdimensional drama and, with it, a continuation of the story that put fan favorites like Sadie Sink’s Max in grave danger after a battle with Jamie Campbell Bower’s villain, Vecna.

With so many questions still unanswered (Will Max ever wake up from her coma? What will happen to the town of Hawkins now that the Upside Down is invading?!), it’s hard to believe we’re nearing the end of Stranger Things. Since its debut in the summer of 2016, the series has built a world filled with supernatural suspense, iconic characters (RIP, Eddie!) and ride-or-die friendships. It’s also a love letter to all things ’80s, celebrating everything from Dungeons & Dragons to hanging at the roller rink — all with an epic synth soundtrack. Soon we’ll all be wistful for the series that made nostalgia cool.

Here’s everything we know so far about the upcoming season of Stranger Things.

Where did we leave off with our Stranger Things gang?

Season 4 of Stranger Things followed the Hawkins crew as they tried to stop Vecna, a powerful new villain with ties to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Vecna, once known as Henry Creel, was the first child experimented on by Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) in the Hawkins lab, but after Eleven defeated him as a child, he was sent to the Upside Down.

At the beginning of the season, Vecna exacted his revenge with a string of teen murders, leading the gang to team up to defeat him. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Max, Eleven, Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Robin (Maya Hawke) worked together across different locations and dimensions to stop Vecna, but unfortunately, it didn’t go quite as well as they’d hoped: In the season finale, Vecna’s still around, Max is in a coma and the Upside Down is starting to take over the real world.

When will Season 5 of Stranger Things drop?

Expect the holidays to get a little stranger this year. The first four episodes of the season, coined “Volume 1,” will drop on Nov. 26 — the day before Thanksgiving. “Volume 2,” with three episodes, is slated to drop on Christmas. The show won’t release its final episode, “Volume 3,” until New Year’s Eve. This marks the first time that the series will release just one episode separately from the rest of the show — meaning that the last episode will be an event all its own.

Each part is slated to drop at 5 p.m. PT on its release date. Netflix is planning on releasing all of these episodes at the same time worldwide.

How many episodes of Stranger Things are there? How long are they?

Stranger Things Season 5 will consist of eight episodes — and we already know their names: “The Crawl,” “The Vanishing of…,” “The Turnbow Trap,” “Sorcerer,” “Shock Jock,” “Escape from Camazotz,” “The Bridge” and “The Rightside Up.”

Ross Duffer shared the runtime for just the first four episodes of the season, aka “Volume 1,” on Instagram.

• “Chapter One: The Crawl” — 1 hour and 8 minutes

• “Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler” — 54 minutes

• “Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap” — 1 hour and 6 minutes

• “Chapter Four: Sorcerer” — 1 hour and 23 minutes

Wolfhard, who plays Mike, previously told Collider that while some episodes run closer to 45 minutes, others are as long as a feature film. That checks out, given the longer runtime of Season 4’s episodes — including the finale, which clocked in at two hours and 24 minutes.

Ross Duffer said at the Next on Netflix event in January that they spent a full year filming the season and that by the end, they had captured over 650 hours of footage. “So, needless to say, this is our biggest and most ambitious season yet,” he said. “It’s like eight blockbuster movies. It’s pretty, pretty insane.”

And Bower previously told Netflix that while Season 4 of the show was “big,” the show’s final season “definitely feels bigger.”

Who is returning?

Most of your favorites are confirmed to be back: Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, David Harbour as Jim Hopper, Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Amybeth McNulty as Vickie, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna/Henry Creel, Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler and Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield will all return for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.

Are there any new characters?

Stranger Things is adding new cast members Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly and Alex Breaux to the show’s final season. And staying true to its pattern of casting ’80s icons — like its star Winona Ryder and cast members like The Goonies star Sean Astin and Aliens’ Paul Reiser — the series has also cast The Terminator’s Linda Hamilton in the role of Dr. Kay.

Do we know what the new season will be about? Is there a trailer?

The official teaser trailer released on July 16 also came with an official description of the final season:

“The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna,” the synopsis reads. “But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.”

Matt Duffer revealed in a press release earlier this year that the new season has “no time for a ramp-up,” meaning it’s “going to be intense from beginning to end.” And Ross noted that the new season will feel “familiar” to longtime fans of the series. “This season is the biggest it’s ever been in scale, but everyone’s back together in Hawkins, interacting the same way they were in Season 1.”

When will the season take place? Is there a time jump?

According to the official Stranger Things episode title announcement, Season 5 picks up in the fall of 1987, more than a year after Season 4, which unfolds in March of 1986.

But eagle-eyed fans noticed something quite interesting in footage of Harbour and Wolfhard filming Stranger Things in Atlanta, which is a stand-in for downtown Hawkins. On the set, there is reportedly a movie theater advertising Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — a movie that came out in 1989, two years after the series picks up again. So it’s possible, though hardly confirmed, that we may see our characters throughout a wider time span than in previous seasons.

Are there any major theories for the final season?

One of the bigger theories heading into Season 5 involves the resurrection of metalhead Eddie, played by Joseph Quinn. Eddie was tragically swarmed by demobats in Season 4, leading to his demise — but some think his manner of death is a clue that he could return in a new form. It all has to do with the Dungeons & Dragons story of Kas the Bloody-Handed, a warrior who was killed by Vecna and later resurrected as a bloodsucker.

However, Matt Duffer shot down that theory in an October interview with Empire, telling the outlet that Eddie is, sadly, dead. “Joe is so busy anyway, that everyone should know he’s not coming back,” he said of the star, who is set to play George Harrison in Sam Mendes’ upcoming series of Beatles biopics. “He’s shot like five movies since! When the hell has he got time to come and shoot Stranger Things? No, sadly, RIP. He’s fully under that ground.”

Another theory points to how Stranger Things might end — and it’s pretty depressing for Eleven. One theory popular with fans is that Eleven will take Vecna’s place as the ruler of the Upside Down, but instead of it being a dark, gloomy hellscape, she’ll use her psychic abilities to create a paradise. That means, of course, she’ll leave dad Hopper and boyfriend Mike in the real world … unless they can vacation there on school breaks?!

I miss Stranger Things. What can I do until Season 5 drops?

You can learn more about Vecna’s backstory in the special-effects-heavy stage show Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which began its run in London’s West End before setting up shop on Broadway as well. While there’s no Eleven, Mike or any of the other Hawkins teens, the play does take audiences back to the small Indiana town circa 1959, when Hopper and Joyce were in high school.