The brilliant minds behind Netflix’s Stranger Things are undoubtedly geniuses in building anticipation but the premiere date for season five has been confirmed – finally.
Based on the soul-crushing season four finale and the date announcement video, it’s safe to presume the fifth season of Stranger Things will completely break our spirits.
In the years since the last episode – which aired May 27, 2022 – fans have been hanging onto every thread of information offered by the cast and crew.
We’ve been pulling at those threads for many years, and after being incredibly patient, it is finally eventuating into actual information!
Below, TV WEEK has gathered everything fans need to know about the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.
Robin and Steve are back with their shenanigans for season five. (Credit: Instagram)
When does Stranger Things season five release?
The final season of Stranger Things will be released in three parts on Netflix at the end of 2025.
Volume one of Stranger Things will be released in Australia at 12:00pm AEDT on November 27, then December 26, followed by the finale premiering January 1, 2026.
It is currently unclear how many episodes each volume will contain. However, Tudum has revealed there will be a total of eight episodes, the names of each episode are below:
- Episode One: The Crawl
- Episode Two: The Vanishing of…
- Episode Three: The Turnbow Trap
- Episode Four: Sorcerer
- Episode Five: Shock Jock
- Episode Six: Escape from Camazotz
- Episode Seven: The Bridge
- Episode Eight: The Rightside Up
Who is the cast of Stranger Things season five?
There are plenty of new and returning cast members for Stranger Things season five. Joining the cast in the final season are Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, Alex Breauz and Linda Hamilton.
Below, TV WEEK has listed the full cast list for Stranger Things’ fifth season:
- Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers
- David Harbour as Jim Hopper
- Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven
- Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler
- Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson
- Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
- Noah Schnapp as Will Byers
- Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield
- Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
- Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers
- Joe Keery as Steve Harrington
- Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley
- Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair
- Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman
- Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna
- Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler
- Amybeth McNulty as Vickie
- Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler
- Jake Connelly as Derek
- Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers
- Linda Hamilton as Dr. Kay
Sadie Sink is in the right hand corner. What role will she play in season five? Credit: Instagram)
What is the plot for Stranger Things season five?
In the aforementioned soul-crushing season four finale, we watched Eddie Munsen sacrifice himself to save his friends while Max died horribly at the hands of Vecna before Eleven brought her back – but she’s currently in a coma.
Hawkins is in peril as the Upside Down is meshing into the real world. But the one sliver of joy the creators gave fans was the long-awaited kiss between Hopper and Joyce.
The fifth season will pay homage to its first as we approach the anniversary of Will’s disappearance.
For the first season, Matt and Ross Duffer wrote a 25-page mythology document on the Upside Down. It is this document that holds the answers to our remaining questions, all yet to be answered in season five. Which means we’ll definitely be re-watching season one for any potential Easter eggs!
“Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna,” the official 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.”
“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.”
What have the cast said about season five?
While speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in October 2024, Stranger Things star David Harbour – who portrays Hopper – revealed the final episode had the cast “uncontrollably crying.”
“”The end of this episode when we were reading it — just us reading it — about halfway through, people started crying,” he said. “Then about the last 20 minutes, it was just uncontrollably crying, waves of different people.”
Despite the emotional wreck that fans will no doubt become during the final season, David assured it has been done beautifully.
“It’s such a great episode, and it’s such a great season. You guys will love it,” he concluded.
A few months later, Maya Hawke revealed the episodes are “basically” movies given their duration.
“They are very intense and serious about the quality of the continued writing, and so it takes a long time to write each season and a long time to shoot them,” she told hosts Penn Badgley, Nava Kaveline, and Sophie Ansari on Podcrushed podcast.
After filming for the final season wrapped, Finn Wolfhard admitted he was “still in shock.”
“We shot it for a year and I’ll miss all my friends and our characters terribly,” he shared.
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