Everything We Know About 'Stranger Things' Season 5
The end is near. Here's everything we know about Netflix's favourite sci-fi drama series
It's all coming to an end. Netflix's hit original series Stranger Things has reached its final season, leaving fans in high anticipation after Season 4 ended with a wild cliffhanger. Having first entered our lives in 2016, it's going to be hard to say goodbye to the treasured show that many of us have come to love. Primarily following a group of four friends that live in the eerie town of Hawkins, Indiana, the guys are pulled into an otherworldly mystery as they come across the Upside Down and befriend a young girl with astonishing powers.
Even with production halts due to the pandemic and the cast's busy schedules, Stranger Things has been able to persevere and has finally reached its conclusion. Before we begin our mourning period too soon, we do have a whole other season that's in the works. From the cast to the plot, here's everything we know so far about Stranger Things Season 5.
Cast
Every series regular is set to return for Season 5 including Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, and Priah Ferguson. Of course, we can't forget the adults – David Harbour, Winona Ryder, and Brett Gelman. In the fourth season, we were introduced to the main villain, the main man (or should we say, monster) who's been behind it all the whole time: Vecna. The head antagonist was played by Jamie Campbell Bower, who we can confidently assume will return for Season 5.
It is still up in the air if Paul Reiser and Matthew Modine will reappear for the final season, but we certainly wouldn't mind seeing as many returning characters as we can. As for any additions to the cast list, Matt and Ross Duffer have already confirmed there will be no new characters appearing in the fifth season.
Plot
Season 4 left on a major cliffhanger, meaning it wouldn't be surprising if Season 5 picks up from the effects of where everything left off. Last we saw, Eleven (Brown) went up against Vecna and while she didn't kill him she injured him enough to retreat and heal his wounds in preparation for the coming war. Max (Sink) was shockingly killed at the hands of Vecna, but fortunately was brought back to life by Eleven and is now resting in a coma. Hopper (Harbour), Joyce (Ryder), and Murray (Gelman) have returned to Hawkins after killing captured Demogorgons in a Soviet prison, while the remainder of the group is left reeling from the difficult battle they just faced.
In an interview with TV Line, the Duffer Brothers said that there will likely be a time jump in Season 5. “I’m sure we will do a time jump,” Ross told TV Line. “Ideally, we’d have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that." The brothers also teased on the podcast Happy Sad Confused that Season 5 will feel very full-scale: "It’s going to feel a lot larger in scale than Season 1, but we wanna go back to a lot of things we did in Season 1, a lot of original groupings and parings - there’s something nice about coming full scale," the brothers said in the podcast. "It’s gonna feel bigger than Season 1, much more massive in terms of the stakes and the scale, but we wanna revisit a lot of things we did in Season 1."
Beyond the occasional storyline teasers, the plot has mainly been kept under wraps providing no room for any spoilers.
Production
The writing was already in the works after the release of Season 4, but official filming has yet to begin. In a 2022 interview with British GQ, Harbour expressed that he believes production will start sometime this year and the official release won't happen until 2024. “I think we’ll [shoot] next year. They’re finishing writing it this year, and they need to prep and stuff, so hopefully, it’ll be this year,” Harbour explained. “But I think that’s the plan. So it’d probably come out mid-2024, based on our track record.”
Additional Details
It has come to light that Season 5 will be the most expensive in terms of salaries compared to previous seasons. Per a report from Puck News, Harbour and Ryder each negotiated $9.5 million for the season, while Matarazzo, McLaughlin, Schnapp, Wolfhard, and Sink will each be paid $7 million. Dyer, Heaton, Keery, and Hawke will each receive a little over $6 million. Brown was not a part of the negotiations due to her Netflix contract that covers Enola Holmes and the upcoming film The Electric State.
While Stranger Things was already on the expensive side after a reported $30 million spent per episode for Season 4, Netflix has clearly agreed to go higher with the overall budget after these new salary increases. Of course, the cast has more than earned their right to negotiate higher wages, especially being a part of the show for four successful seasons. We just hope there's still room in the budget to make sure Season 5 ends on the high note that we all want and are expecting.
