Netflix is going big for the final season of Stranger Things, turning its last chapter into a global streaming event stretched across the holiday season.
The Stranger Things 5 release dates are now locked in. Volume 1 arrives on 26 November, Volume 2 follows on Christmas Day, and the series finale lands on New Year’s Eve. All three drops go live at 5:00 p.m. PST globally.
Instead of a binge drop, Netflix is spacing out the final episodes, giving one of its biggest originals a slow-burn conclusion that echoes the stakes of a blockbuster film franchise.
Season 5 picks up in the autumn of 1987. Hawkins is fractured by the opening of the Rifts. Vecna has vanished. Eleven is back in hiding. The town is under military lockdown and the group is once again scattered, forced to confront a growing darkness as the anniversary of Will Byers’ disappearance draws near.
The ensemble cast returns, including Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Sadie Sink, Gaten Matarazzo, and Maya Hawke. They’re joined by newcomers like Linda Hamilton and Alex Breaux.
The core cast returns for the final season alongside new faces like Linda Hamilton.
The Upside Down will finally reveal its secrets. The Duffer Brothers shared they wrote a 25-page mythology document early in the show’s development. “We’ve held onto a few of those reveals,” Ross Duffer said during Netflix’s Geeked Week, “and they’re finally coming in Season 5.”
Until then, fans can explore the show’s stage prequel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, currently running on Broadway and London’s West End.
The battle for Hawkins — and perhaps reality itself — begins this November. The countdown is on.