Warning: this article contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4: Volume 2.
Ross and Matt Duffer, co-creators of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, have announced their plans for the show’s final season and eventual series finale. With the show’s fourth season having just been concluded with a dramatic and traumatic finale on July 1st, fans of the Stranger Things series from around the world are eagerly waiting to see where the Duffer brothers, the Stranger Things creators, are going to take the show during its final season.
Stranger Things, which was first released on Netflix in July 2016, tells the story of Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) as they try to solve the disappearance of their friend Will Byers (Noah Schnapp). With the help of Will’s mom Joyce (Winona Ryder) and brother Johnathan (Charlie Heaton), Mike’s sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer), local bully-turned-babysitter Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), and town sheriff Jim Hopper (David Harbour), the kids eventually discover that not only has Will fallen into a horrifying otherworldly dimension known as the Upside Down, but the key to getting him out is a mysterious girl named Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) who possesses supernatural powers.
Over the course of the last four seasons, Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, and the gang have battled everything from Demogorgons to Russian conspiracies to keep their hometown of Hawkins, Indiana – and by extension, the rest of the world – safe from both supernatural beings and shady scientists running the lab that spawned Eleven in the first place. Additional cast members include Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, Darcy Montgomery as Billy Hargrove, and Joseph Quinn as Eddie Munson, a new character that was introduced in season 4.
Stranger Things season 4 was released in two parts, with Stranger Things 4: Volume One premiering on Netflix on May 27th, 2022, and Volume Two, the final two episodes, dropping on July 1st. The fourth season follows three plotlines: the first follows Dustin, Lucas, Max, Steve, and Robin along with newcomer Eddie Munson as they uncover that a recent murder spree in town has been caused by Vecna, a horrifying creature from the Upside Down. The second plotline follows Mike as he visits Eleven, Will, Johnathan, and Joyce at their new home in California and Eleven struggles to regain her powers amidst more revelations about her past; the third plotline follows Joyce as she discovers that Jim Hopper, her love interest and Eleven’s surrogate father, is still alive following the season 3 finale.
How the Ending of ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 is the Beginning of Season 5
Season 4 ends with – spoiler alert – Eddie dead and Max in a coma following a climactic battle with Vecna. According to the Duffer brothers, this season finale of Stranger Things was different from the previous three because, unlike the others, the season 4 finale didn’t tie up all of its loose threads, leaving plenty of room for season 5 to explore.
“It’s going to be moving,” Matt Duffer told Entertainment Weekly. “I don’t know that it’s going to be going 100 miles an hour at the start of 5, but it’s going to be moving pretty fast. Characters are already going to be in action. They’re already going to have a goal and a drive, and I think that’s going to carve out at least a couple hours and make this season feel really different.”
While not much is known about Stranger Things season 5 thus far, the Duffer brothers have confirmed two things: one, that the season will take place entirely in Hawkins, Indiana, unlike season 4, and that season 5 is set to begin development in August, according to Collider. Regarding season 5, the Duffer brothers also said that they would be returning to a lot of the “groupings and pairings” that the show had in season 1, stating that “there’s something nice about coming full circle,” and that the fifth season is aimed at giving all of the characters their moments to shine.
“We want to make sure that they all land in a way that we all feel good about,” Ross Duffer told Collider.
A release date for Stranger Things season 5 has not been announced yet. Seasons 1-4 of Stranger Things are currently available on Netflix.