Matt and Ross Duffer have confirmed that Stranger Things season five will be its last season, but there’s much more of the story left to uncover. Season four focused heavily on Vecna feeding off of people’s traumas and gaining power. As viewers learned more about the features of the Upside Down, he was revealed to have been Number One (Jamie Campbell Bower), Victor Creel’s son, Henry, who helped train Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) at Hawkins Labs before she banishes him.
The Hawkins gang was separated in season four. Eleven and Will (Noah Schnapp) are in Lenora Hills, California, experiencing the growing pains of fitting into a new high school. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) are at odds with Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), who has traded in Dungeons & Dragons for basketball. And Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray (Brett Gelman) are searching for Hopper (David Harbour), who’s in a Russian prison camp. In an interview for Variety, the Duffer Brothers let fans in on what they’ve got cooking for the story ahead.
Exploring the Upside Down
In season five, viewers will learn more about the dark alternate dimension: the Upside Down. When Eleven sent Number One into the Upside Down, he monstrously transformed, and the space began reflecting Hawkins from Henry’s memories. Season four, volume two will further explore the hierarchy within this realm. The Mind Flayer reigns supreme as the main evil entity, Dustin refers to Vecna as its five-star general, and the Demogorgon is an eyeless monster that can travel between worlds and sense blood. Ross said, “I’m sure someone on Reddit will be able to maybe piece it together, but a lot of those answers for the Upside Down or that is really what the basis of season 5 is about.”
Will it be split into two parts?
Many viewers wonder if season five will follow the same format as season four. Season four was the first time Stranger Things was split into two parts. Volume one has seven episodes, and volume two has the last two movie-length episodes surpassing four hours in total. They said this decision was dictated by how laborious the visual effects were for the final two episodes and having to work around pandemic delays. However, Matt did reveal that he liked this format, with the final two episodes feeling like a Stranger Things finale, so perhaps they will do it again if the viewers like it well enough.
The length & number of episodes
Similarly, the length of the episodes is still yet to be determined. The Duffer Brothers believed the longer episodes featured in season four were necessary to fulfill the storylines, structure, and pacing. If they had cut down on the episode length, that would have taken away from the story. Since there are still many more twists and turns left for the series, more super-sized episodes might occur.
It’s expected that the Stranger Things 5 episode length will be similar to Stranger Things 4. Season one had eight episodes, season two had nine episodes, season three had eight episodes, and season four had nine episodes. They probably won’t deviate from this pattern unless they pull an Ozark and increase the episode number for the final series to fully address all the plots that need wrapping up. Of course, this would also mean an increased budget in an already expensive series, so it could go either way.
Another time jump
Stranger Things 5 will also have another time jump. Every new season has had one, but there will likely be an even bigger one for the last season. The young actors are aging quickly, and the creators know the timeline will need to reflect this. “I’m sure we will do a time jump,” Ross said in the interview. “Ideally, we’d have shot (seasons four and five) back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that.”
The Stranger Things spinoff
The show will be ending, but it will live on in the form of an untitled spinoff. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos hinted that it could star Eleven, and apparently, Wolfhard’s the only person who has figured out where the Duffer Brothers want to go with it. However, Matt shared that it might not have the Stranger Things title and that it’ll go in a direction people won’t expect.
Stranger Things 5 release date
Stranger Things season 5 doesn’t have an official release date yet, but Matt confirmed that the story is mostly mapped out. There’s still a lot of information unknown about the final season, and we will update this story as more information becomes available.
