Stranger Things season 5: release date, trailer, confirmed cast, story details, and more about the popular Netflix show's final chapter

At long last, Stranger Things season 5 has an official release date – three, to be exact.

Indeed, the hugely successful Netflix show's final chapter will be released in three parts, with volume 1 set to debut on the best streaming service on November 26 (US) and November 27 (UK and Australia). You'll need to read on to find out when its follow-up volumes will air on the platform.

I promise you'll learn even more about Stranger Things' fifth and final season if you do. There's plenty more information on one of the best Netflix shows' final hurrah from this point on, including its first-look footage, confirmed cast, and plot specifics. Full spoilers follow for Stranger Things season 4 Possible spoilers for season 5 are also discussed.

Stranger Things season 5 release date

Stranger Things season 5's release dates were revealed at Netflix Tudum 2025. As I mentioned, it'll arrive in three parts, too, with the first five episodes, which comprise volume 1, due to launch on November 26 in the US, and November 27 in the UK and Australia. You can see when the volumes 2 and 3 will be released via the X/Twitter post above.

Before those dates were publicly announced, Netflix previously confirmed Stranger Things 5 would debut sometime in 2025. That came as a relief as we were worried that season 5 wouldn't arrive until 2026. That was despite the fact that principal photography wrapped on Stranger Things 5 last December, too.

Stranger Things season 5 trailer: is there one?

Sort of. A teaser was unveiled during Netflix Tudum 2025, but it mostly contained footage from the series' first four seasons.

That said, there are clips from Stranger Things season 5 towards the end of this sizzle reel-style video. We see Joyce wielding her trusty ax, Karen Wheeler looking terrified as she holds Mike and Nancy's younger sister, Lucas watching over a comatose Max, and Steve and Dustin teaming up once more.

Other quick cuts include a brief shot of Eleven holding her ears, Mike holding back some of this season's new cast additions, soldiers watching a doorway to the Upside Down opening up, and a close-up of a scared Will who screams "Run! Ruuuuuun!"

Ahead of that teaser's debut, Netflix released a behind-the-scenes look at season 5 in mid-2024. The video represented our first proper look at Stranger Things season 5 – one that reveals new characters, fan-favorite team-ups, and a possible time jump, but didn't feature any actual footage.

It could be a while before an official trailer is revealed, too. Netflix doesn't release proper teasers until one or two months before a new TV Original, or a new season of a popular show, launches. So, it could be September before Stranger Things 5's first actual teaser is with us.

Stranger Things season 5 cast: confirmed and rumored

Major spoilers follow for Stranger Things season 4.

Here's the confirmed cast for Stranger Things season 5 thus far:

• 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
• Natalie 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 Turnbow
• Alex Breaux as Lieutenant Akers
• Linda Hamilton as Doctor Kay

Outside of those returning from season 4, the biggest casting news is that Terminator star Linda Hamilton has joined the Stranger Things 5 ranks. Netflix has confirmed she's playing a new scientist called Doctor Kay.

She isn't the only cast addition. As revealed in July's behind-the-scenes teaser and confirmed by a Netflix press release, Fisher (Evil Dead Rise), Breaux (Waco: The Aftermath), and up-and-comer Connelly are also part of proceedings. Fisher will play Holly Wheeler, aka Mike and Nancy's younger sibling, while Connelly and Breaux have been cast as Derek and Lieutenant Akers.

As for other returning characters who might show up, Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest), Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sullivan (Sherman Augustus) and Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) should be back. Doctor Sam Owens' (Paul Reiser) fate is unknown after he was left handcuffed to a pipe in the subterranean Nina Project in season 4, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't feature.

On the no-shows front, Eduardo Franco has confirmed (per IGN) he didn't receive the call to reprise his role as fan-favorite season 4 character Argyle. Joseph Quinn's Eddie Munson won't be back, either, following his death in last season's finale. Other season 4 characters in Dmitri Antonov (Tom Wlaschiha) and Yuri Ismaylov (Nikola Duricko) are unlikely to appear as well.

Stranger Things season 5 story synopsis and speculation

Full spoilers follow for Stranger Things season 4. Potential season 5 spoilers are also discussed.

Here's the official plot brief for Stranger Things season 5: "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. 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."

Given this season marks the end of one of Netflix's earliest TV Original smash hits, the show is set to go out with a bang.

To that end, Stranger Things 5 will test our runtime limits, with Maya Hawke revealing that "basically, eight movies" have been filmed. Season 5's 12-month shoot yielded 650-plus hours of footage, too, which had to be whittled down for its "blockbuster movie" episodes, too, according to co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer.

Furthermore, we know what this season's episode titles are. The season 5 premiere title, aka 'The Crawl', was unveiled in mid-2022 – here are four big theories on what Stranger Things 5's first episode title could mean – while the others were unveiled last November.

• Episode 1 – The Crawl
• Episode 2 – The Vanishing Of [Redacted]
• Episode 3 – The Turnbow Trap
• Episode 4 – Sorcerer
• Episode 5 – Shock Jock
• Episode 6 – Escape From Camazotz
• Episode 7 – The Bridge
• Episode 8 – The Rightside Up

Interestingly, the Duffers confirmed they rewrote parts of season 5 (per Netflix Tudum) based on fan feedback, which means the show will end in a different way than they originally intended. Thankfully, nothing about season 5's concluding chapter has appeared online, even after Netflix reportedly suffered a major Stranger Things 5 leak in February. For now, then, its biggest secrets are still being kept under wraps.

Before the end credits roll for the final time, our heroes must join forces to try to stop Vecna – the show's primary antagonist – for good.

"Our characters are going after Vecna from minute one," Ross Duffer told Stranger Things season 4 volume 2 unlocked episode in July 2022. "We have a lot to do, in terms of a few more revelations, and also we need to make sure we give our characters time to make these final arcs."

So, what happened last time out? In the season 4 finale, Vecna was severely injured by Nancy, Steve, and Robin at Creel House. However, when they go looking for Vecna's body, it's gone, so the series' main villain appears to crawled away to recover from his wounds.

He was technically victorious in season 4, though. Max, his final victim, died for a whole minute after he attacked her. That caused four rifts to the Upside Down to open in the center of Hawkins, thereby allowing it to start merging with the real world. So, Vecna will want to finish what he started – i.e. destroying everything that our heroes hold dear.

To put a stop to his world-ending plan, the show's main characters are already assembled in Hawkins so, while they might break into smaller groups to cover as much ground as possible, they're still effectively working together. Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Matt Duffer said that was an intentional creative decision, adding: "We want to go back to a lot things we did in season 1 and a lot of the original groupings and pairings that we had."

But back to Max. She's in a medically-induced coma following her near-fatal encounter with Vecna in the Stranger Things season 4 finale. When Eleven went searching for Max in the Void in said finale, though, she couldn't find her, so nobody knows if Max will ever wake up.

Before filming on season 5 began, Sink said she was in the dark about Max's fate, but you can read our thoughts on how Max's story could go one of two ways in Stranger Things season 5. However, in images posted from the season 5 set (see the below Instagram post's third photograph), Ross Duffer teased Lucas will try to coax Max out of her unconscious state using music – and, in particular, her love to Kate Bush.

Elsewhere Noah Schnapp, who plays The Upside Down's most notable victim in Will Byers, dropped a big hint to Vogue about his season 5 character arc, saying: "There’s a lot in store for Will. It ties back to where it begins, full circle. I’m excited for fans to see where we wrap his character. I think they’ll be really pleased, but also shocked."

Schnapp also told US magazine that Will is the "center point" of Stranger Things 5, before revealing (via Forbes) that the whole show "end with Will". Based on the X/Twitter post below, it could begin with a flashback showing us a de-aged Will or, as seen in a video from Schnapp (post on Ross Duffer's X/Twitter account) showed, a present day Will revisiting Castle Byers, aka his self-erected childhood hideout.

Ross Duffer corroborated Schnapp's comments in conversation with Variety, adding: "Will really takes center stage again. This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together. Will is used to being the young one, the introverted one, the one that’s being protected. So part of his journey, it’s not just sexuality – it’s Will coming into his own as a young man."

As for potential character deaths, Stranger Things season 5 sounds like it'll be the deadliest yet, which implies some main characters will perish. Place your bets on who'll make it out live now.

Teasing what else fans can expect, Matt Duffer told TVLine that season 5 will likely feature a time jump. The final few episodes will, as he told the Happy Sad Confused podcast, be like The Lord of the Rings in its design, too.

"It [the season 5 finale] is going to be Return of the King-ish with eight endings," he said. "If you just watch Return of the King, it feels like too many endings. [But] if you watch all of them back-to-back, which I’ve done multiple times, it’s exactly right. If it were any shorter, it would feel cheap and wrong."

As for other subplots that need resolving, we should find out why the Upside Down is seemingly stuck in 1984. We still don't have all the answers about what this realm actually is (outside of snippets revealed in prequel stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow), why it's spookier and more dingy than the realm Henry Creel first traveled to, or what The Mind Flayer is exactly. Ross Duffer (per Stranger Things season 4 volume 2's unlocked episode) claims those queries will be answered.

There's also the loose end concerning number eight – aka Kali Prasad. We haven't seen Kali since season 2 and, unlike every other test subject under Doctor Brenner's supervision (who had telekinetic abilities), she had different powers. Why was she the odd one out? And will we see her again?

It's possible Stranger Things season 5 won't answer these questions. After all, the Duffers have retconned some early season plot points in later instalments (via Variety). Maybe Kali's story is just one of those lingering mysteries we'll never get closure on.

And what of the show's official ending? Understandably, we have no idea how it'll wrap up, but Matarazzo told NME that fans can prepare to see a "satisfying" and "cathartic" final chapter, while Wolfhard told People.com that he was "satisfied... confused... and sad" about how the show ends. David Harbour also told THR that the series' last-ever episode is "the best episode they [the Duffers] have done" before teasing how tear-jerking it is. Have a box of tissues at the ready, everyone!

The future of Stranger Things

Season 5 of Stranger Things is the end of the mainline show, but there are other projects in the works at Upside Down Pictures, the Duffers' production company.

The first of those – the stage play that's titled Stranger Things: The First Shadow – made its debut at London's Phoenix Theater in December 2023. Since March 2025, though, it's been available to watch on Broadway in the US.

For the uninitiated: The First Shadow is set in 1959 and tells the tale of the Creel Family's arrival in Hawkins. It also shows us Jim Hopper, Henry Creel, and other notable characters in their teens.

Fantastic though that sounds, we think this spin-off of Stranger Things season 5 will hit the big Marvel and Star Wars problem. Based on a huge plot point it'll contain, The First Shadow's big lore reveal will need addressing in season 5 for anyone who doesn't get the chance to watch the play, too.

As for other Stranger Things-Verse projects currently in the works, an animated spin-off called Stranger Things: Tales From '85 is due out on Netflix at some point. Its first footage will be unveiled at Annecy Film Festival 2025, which takes place in France between June 8 and 14. Hopefully, we'll learn about its launch date during said presentation, too.

For more Netflix-based coverage, read our guides on Bridgerton season 4, Squid Game season 3, Wednesday season 2, and Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2.