Vecna Looms in a New Poster for ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5

Stranger Things is coming back for its fifth and final season, and fans won’t have to wait too long.

Netflix has confirmed that Stranger Things 5 will be released in three parts, with the first group of episodes arriving on November 26, 2025. Then more episodes will drop on December 25, and finally, the big ending will come on December 31. The season will have eight episodes in total. The creators of the show, Matt and Ross Duffer, along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen, are working as producers again to finish the story.

The main cast that everyone knows will be returning. Winona Ryder will be back as Joyce Byers, and David Harbour will return as Jim Hopper. Millie Bobby Brown will play Eleven, also known as Jane Hopper.

The rest of the gang will be there too: Finn Wolfhard as Mike, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas, Noah Schnapp as Will, and Sadie Sink as Max. Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Brett Gelman, and Priah Ferguson are all coming back as well. Amybeth McNulty, who appeared briefly before, is now joining as a regular character. Another big surprise is that Linda Hamilton, known from the Terminator movies, is joining the main cast.

Netflix also released a new poster for the season, which shows Vecna, the villain from the last season, who is still out there and dangerous.

The story picks up a year after season four, now set in the fall of 1987. After the rifts opened in Hawkins, the group is trying to find Vecna and stop him once and for all. But things aren’t simple.

The military has arrived in Hawkins, and they are after Eleven, making the mission even harder. Around the anniversary of Will Byers disappearance all those years ago, the group faces what looks like their final battle, and according to Netflix, something even stronger and deadlier than Vecna will appear.

Some other faces will show up too. Joe Chrest returns as Ted Wheeler and Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler. There will also be new characters like Derek Turnbow played by Jake Connelly, Lt. Akers played by Alex Breaux, and Lt. Colonel Jack Sullivan, once again played by Sherman Augustus.

Back in February 2022, Matt and Ross Duffer shared a letter about the future of Stranger Things. In that letter, they talked about the fourth season being split into two parts, their ideas for a spinoff, and that Netflix had officially renewed Stranger Things for a fifth and final season.

They once thought the show would end after four seasons, but plans changed, and they hinted about a possible fifth season as early as 2017.

The Duffer brothers explained that they were able to plan the entire fifth season much earlier than usual because COVID-19 had delayed filming. They actually finished writing the season before shooting season four. Later, after hearing fans’ thoughts about season four, they made some changes to the ending of the show.

As reported in June 2023, Dan Trachtenberg was hired to direct one episode. By September of the same year, Shawn Levy was confirmed to direct another episode. One more exciting fact came out when it was revealed that Frank Darabont, who had retired from directing, decided to come back just for Stranger Things. He will direct two episodes because, according to reports, he and his wife are big fans of the series.

Netflix said the season will come out in three releases. The first release, which has four episodes, is set for November 26, 2025. Then three more episodes will be released on December 25. Finally, the series will end with a big finale on December 31.

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