Get Up to Speed on the Last Season of 'Stranger Things'

The end is near! After six years, Netflix's hit series, Stranger Things, is gearing up for its final season - season 5.

Prior to the highly-anticipated season 4 premiere, creators Matt and Ross Duffer announced in an open letter in February 2022 that they had always planned to end the series after one last chapter in Hawkins, Indiana. “Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things. At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four but — as you'll see for yourselves — we are now hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last,” they revealed.

The Duffer Brothers also hinted that they are planning to expand the Stranger Things universe with more projects. “There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things: new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes,” they shared. “But first, we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down.”

Later in the year, the Duffer Brothers revealed their vision for the final episodes and addressed the season 4 episode split, saying, “The original plan was to release it all at once again. But as we began turning over episodes, everyone began to feel the season was too big to be released in one batch — at nearly 13 hours, it is really more two seasons than one,” they told Variety in May 2022 after Volume 1 dropped the first seven episodes. “Episode 7 is as big as any season finale we’ve ever had, so it made sense to everyone involved to split the season there. Episode 7 really serves as the end of the second act — and we feel that our final act had enough meat on the bone to make up Volume 2.”

As fans eagerly waited for Volume 2 of season 4, Ross and Matt revealed that they hoped the final season would have a shorter wait time. “We always knew that Season 4 was going to be the penultimate season, and that its ending would dive directly into Season 5. During the six-month pandemic hiatus, we outlined Season 5 and pitched it to Netflix,” they shared. “Don’t hold us to it, but the gap should be quite a bit shorter this time, due to the fact that we already have an initial outline, and we can’t imagine there will be another six-month forced hiatus.”

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