The fifth and final season of the American science fictionhorrordrama television series Stranger Things, marketed as Stranger Things 5, will be released on the streaming service Netflix. The season will be produced by the show's creators, the Duffer brothers, along with Shawn Levy, and Dan Cohen.
On February 17, 2022, series creators Matt and Ross Duffer released an expansive letter about Stranger Things that included, amongst other revelations, the fourth season's two-part release schedule, their intention to produce a spinoff series set in the world of the show for Netflix, and the renewal of the series for a fifth and final season.[11] The duo had originally indicated the show was planned to run for a maximum four seasons, but a fifth season run was later teased by producers in 2017.[12]
As with seasons past, planning for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things began before the preceding season's release. However, due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Duffers were able to completely outline the fifth season before the fourth had even begun shooting, which was a departure from their usual development cadence. They then revisited their outline and reworked the structure and events of season five based on feedback they received after the release of season four, even going so far as to alter the series' ending.[13] Executive producer Shawn Levy was confirmed to be directing at least one episode in the season by September 2023.[14]Frank Darabont came out of retirement to direct two episodes, having been a huge fan of the series alongside his wife.[15]
Writing
Writing for the fifth season began on August 2, 2022, about a month after the premiere of season 4 volume 2.[16] On November 6, 2022 (Stranger Things Day), it was announced that the first episode would be titled "Chapter One: The Crawl" and would be written by the Duffers.[17] As noted by the Duffers in the WGFestival 2022, some unused ideas originally conceived for the second season were implemented in the fifth season's storylines. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on the entertainment industry, the Duffers had time to outline the fifth season before even the fourth season could be shot, edited and released, but once the fourth season was released, the Duffers received some feedback from both the fans and collaborators of the show, leading them to re-write some plans for the season, namely the series finale, and pitch them to Netflix, though they noted that most of their original plan stayed unchanged.[13] The writers team described the tone of the season as if "season 1 and 4 had a baby" which was "injected with steroids".[18] On May 6, 2023, the Duffer Brothers announced that writing for season 5 had been paused due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.[19] On September 27, the day that the strike ended, the Stranger Things Writers account posted an image stating "We're back",[20] officially confirming that writing had resumed. On the same day, Netflix revealed that they were prioritizing the scripts of the season due to the aging cast.[21] On October 14, 2023, it was revealed that writing was over halfway done.[22]
Harbour originally expected to shoot concurrently his scenes as Jim Hopper for the season alongside those of his character Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Thunderbolts* (2025), which was originally planned to be shot at the same time as the season in Atlanta.[30] However, the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes caused both productions to be delayed by the writers' strike.[31] Because of this, the Duffers' initial agreement with Ryder upon joining the show back in mid-2015, that of letting her take a break from the series to reprise her role as Lydia Deetz in a possible Beetlejuice (1988) sequel that Tim Burton had been seriously planning since 2000, did not need to be granted as Ryder shot Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) amid the disputes before filming on the season began.[32] After a significant delay due to the disputes, production of the fifth season began on January 8, 2024.[33] By March 2024, Brown stated that there had been nine months left of filming and that she had then read the script for six episodes.[34] On June 27, Maya Hawke revealed on the "Podcrushed" podcast that the season will consist of "basically eight movies," and that the episodes are "very long".[35] On July 3, Ross Duffer revealed that production was halfway done.[36] In October 2024, Finn Wolfhard stated to People that they were "almost done shooting".[37] Filming wrapped on December 20, 2024.[38][39]
