The Fifth and Final Season of 'Stranger Things' Will Start Dropping in Three Parts From November — and Here's Your First Look
You'll be watching the first volume at the end of November, the second volume on Christmas and the finale on New Year's Eve.
2025 is a shaping up to be a big year for Netflix finales — and it will end that way, too. First, Squid Game is coming to a conclusion in June 2025. Then, Stranger Things will begin following suit with its fifth and last season. You'll be tuning in not once, not twice, but three times for this farewell trip to Hawkins, Indiana, however — starting in November 2025, then checking in again twice in December this year.
Those specific dates: Wednesday, November 26 for the first four-episode volume of season five, then Thursday, December 25 for its second three-chapter volume, followed by Wednesday, December 31 for the finale. Netflix locked in the release schedule as part of a date-announcement video which also provides an initial glimpse at how everything will wrap up.
Included in the clip: looks backwards at the tale that Stranger Things has told so far, which means peering at how young the cast was when the show premiered in 2016. From what's to come, comas, bedside vigils, the military, exploring via torchlight, shaking floors and a key piece of advice — "run" — all feature. Season five makes finding and killing Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower, Emmanuelle) its main aim, all while the town has been placed under quarantine and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown, The Electric State) has been forced into hiding
We know already that the year is 1987 and the time is autumn, jumping forward from the fourth season's spring 1986 timing. We're also aware that one way or another, the residents of Hawkins that viewers know and love will have their last experience with the eeriness that's been plaguing their town for years. That's the promise that accompanies saying goodbye to Stranger Things, of course, even if the hit Netflix show's end won't be it for the franchise's broader universe.
If it feels like there's been a lengthy wait for more — even with the series no stranger to long delays between seasons — that's because there has been. When November rolls around, it will have been almost three-and-a-half years since season four, a gap extended due to 2023's Hollywood strikes. Before that, just under three years elapsed between seasons three and four, and just under two between the second and third seasons. The 13-month gap between seasons one and two seems positively short, then.
Late in 2024, Netflix revealed the titles of Stranger Things' eight season-five episodes. If you feel like obsessing over the monikers for clues, you've had eight hints for a while, then. The season will kick off with 'The Crawl', then deliver 'The Vanishing of ...', 'The Turnbow Trap' and 'Sorcerer'. Next comes 'Shock Jock', 'Escape From Camazotz' and 'The Bridge', before it all ends with the enticingly named 'The Rightside Up'.
Fans also already know that this season features Terminator franchise icon Linda Hamilton, jumping from one sci-fi hit to another. Season five brings back all of the usual faces, too — so, alongside Brown and Bower, Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), David Harbour (Thunderbolts*), Finn Wolfhard (Saturday Night), Gaten Matarazzo (Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain), Caleb McLaughlin (The Deliverance), Noah Schnapp (The Tutor), Sadie Sink (O'Dessa), Natalia Dyer (All Fun and Games), Charlie Heaton (The Souvenir: Part II), Joe Keery (Fargo), Maya Hawke (Inside Out 2), Priah Ferguson (The Curse of Bridge Hollow), Brett Gelman (Lady in the Lake) and Cara Buono (Things Like This).
As for more Stranger Things-related antics after season five, when creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed that their sci-fi show was working towards its endgame back in 2022, they also said that they had more stories to tell in this fictional realm. Instantly, we all knew what that meant. Netflix doesn't like letting go of its hits easily, after all, so the quest to find a way to keep wandering through this franchise was about as surprising as Jim Hopper's (Harbour) usual gruff mood.
Check out the date-announcement video for Stranger Things season five below:
Stranger Things season five will arrive in three parts, on Wednesday, November 26, Thursday, December 25 and Wednesday, December 31, 2025. You can stream the first four seasons now via Netflix — and read our review of season four.
Images: Netflix.
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