‘Stranger Things 5’ Has Officially Started Production—Here’s Everything We Know About the Release Date, Cast & More

It’s been over a year since Stranger Things 4 premiered on Netflix. In the summer of 2022, fans eagerly tuned in to see what would happen to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and the rest of the Hawkins crew. All this time later, we haven’t been able to stop thinking about that explosive season finale. Still, fans are left with one major question: When will we get Stranger Things season 5?

The Duffer Brothers, who created the smash-hit science fiction series, revealed in February 2022 that (sadly) the upcoming fifth season will be the show’s last. While the pandemic delayed filming on the fourth season, the brothers initially revealed in an interview with Variety that we could expect the gap between the fourth and fifth seasons to be much smaller.

However, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes brought Hollywood productions to a halt, meaning that gab would be longer than initially thought. But now that both have ended, the Stranger Things writers have re-entered the writer’s room. On September 27, 2023, the show’s writers confirmed the news on X (formerly Twitter) by posting an image that read, “We're back.” Fast forward to January 8, 2024, and the producers of the show have announced that Stranger Things 5 has officially entered production. To confirm the news, the producers shared a photo of the cast sitting down for a script read on the official Stranger Things Instagram page.

So, what can fans expect from the last season? Is there going to be a release date announcement anytime soon? Keep reading for more details about Stranger Things 5, including speculated release dates, cast, plot and more.

In a statement given to Variety in May of 2022, Matt and Ross Duffer said, “During the six month pandemic hiatus, we outlined season 5 and pitched it to Netflix. Everyone there had also been present when we first pitched the show in 2015. While we were strangers then, we were now friends, and there were a lot of tears when it was over. It’s just been an extraordinary journey for all of us, and while it’s hard to believe that we’re approaching the end, we feel incredibly lucky to have such amazing partners.”

Though the Duffer Brothers originally predicted a shorter hiatus between seasons, the writers’ and actors’ strikes delayed the process.

As we mentioned, Stranger Things 5 has started production. So, viewers can expect exciting developments about season five soon.

Filming for Stranger Things 5 has officially started! On January 8, the producers of the show posted a surprise photo of the main cast on IG. In the black-and-white pic, the main cast members are sitting in a room together. Meanwhile, Wolfhard is holding the new script in his hand. The caption read, “[red light emoji] THIS IS A CODE RED [red light emoji] STRANGER THINGS 5 production has officially begun!!!”

And if that weren't enough, the producers also released a behind-the-scenes photo from the set of Stranger Things 5 on the show’s official Instagram page. In the snap, Maya Hawke (who plays Robin Buckley on the series) and Joe Keery (aka Steve Harrington) are both holding a clapperboard that reads, “Stranger Things 5.”

According to Deadline, the Netflix series was supposed to start filming before the writers’ strike began on May 2, 2023. Now that production has resumed, it’s only a matter of time until we learn that release date...(hopefully very very soon).

Though we don’t know the central plot yet, the crew previously teased what's to come in Stranger Things season five. In August 2022, the writers’ room account posted an image to Twitter with the caption “Day 1” written on the top. The picture showed a whiteboard with “Stranger Things 5” written with a black and red marker. The Stranger Things Instagram account followed up in November, teasing a photo of the script for the first episode, titled “Chapter One: The Crawl.”

Fans can also expect the last season to tie up loose ends. In an interview with Collider, Finn Wolfhard said, “I think it answers an insane amount of questions about the lore of Stranger Things, the world-building. It’s the last season, so we kind of want to get back to the roots of why the show was so special in the first place, and why the dynamics are so special in the first place, and sort of getting back to that. I think it’s gonna be very sad, but I’m also just excited, as a fan, to get into it. I didn’t even know how it ends yet, truly.”

Additionally, in light of the season four finale, fans can expect a quasi-military lockdown as Hawkins teeters on the edge of being consumed by the Upside Down. We expect to see Venca fully recovered and back, ready to annihilate everything that stands in his path. Max will be back, though in what capacity is undetermined, as confirmed by Sadie Sink. The show will need to confront Eleven’s ability to resurrect the dead, and she may find herself needing to make the ultimate sacrifice to close the gates.

Sadly, yes.

Back in February 2022, the Duffer Brothers confirmed that season five will be the show's last in an open letter to fans. The creators wrote, “Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things. At the time, we predicted the story would last four or five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but—as you'll soon see for yourselves—we are now hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; Season 5 will be the last.”

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean fans will have to say goodbye to the Upside Down for good. The Duffer Brothers also teased the possibility of a spin-off, adding, “There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes.”

*Fingers crossed*

So far, every season of Stranger Things has been a total of either eight or nine episodes, so it’s fair to assume that the final season will follow this pattern (and maybe even offer a couple more so that the series can wrap up nicely). Although, if this tweet from the writers’ room is any indication, it seems that season five will have eight.