Stranger Things season 5

The fifth and final season of the American science fiction horror drama 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.
Returning as series regulars are Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Cara Buono, and Jamie Campbell Bower. Amybeth McNulty was promoted to series regular after appearing as a guest in the previous season, while Linda Hamilton joined the main cast in an undisclosed role. The season is set to be released in 2025.
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. 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.
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. Executive producer Shawn Levy was confirmed to be directing at least one episode in the season by September 2023. Frank Darabont came out of retirement to direct two episodes, having been a huge fan of the series alongside his wife.
Writing for the fifth season began on August 2, 2022, about a month after the premiere of season 4 volume 2. 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. 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. The writers team described the tone of the season as if "season 1 and 4 had a baby" which was "injected with steroids". 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. On September 27, the day that the strike ended, the Stranger Things Writers account posted an image stating "We're back", officially confirming that writing had resumed. Netflix reportedly would prioritize writing this script because Stranger Things was profitable and because the actors, though still young, could not continue to portray teenagers forever. On October 14, 2023, it was revealed that writing was over halfway done.
The fifth season features the return of Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Cara Buono, and Jamie Campbell Bower. In June 2023 during Netflix's TUDUM event, it was announced that Linda Hamilton would be joining the cast. Hamilton had contacted the Duffer Brothers on Zoom, providing her with information about the "shape" of her character, but not story. When production began in January 2024, a set photo released by the team confirmed the return of Amybeth McNulty as Vickie. In July 2024, Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux joined the cast. Amidst filming in mid-October 2024, a casting call was announced by Knight Edge Media for Jim Hopper's late daughter Sara, who was previously portrayed by Elle Graham in the first season, with indications she would similarly feature in flashback sequences with a requirement of the chosen actress to resemble Graham back then. In November 2024, Nell Fisher was confirmed to appear as Holly Wheeler.
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. However, the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes caused both productions to be delayed by the writers' strike. 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. After a significant delay due to the disputes, production of the fifth season began on January 8, 2024. 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. 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". On July 3, Ross Duffer revealed that production was halfway done. In October 2024, Finn Wolfhard stated to People that they were "almost done shooting". Filming wrapped on December 20, 2024.
In January 2025, the Duffer brothers announced that post-production for the season was underway and that work on the visual effects was "ahead of schedule".
The season is set to be released in 2025.