Note: This post has no spoilers for Stranger Things season 4, volume 2 (opens in new tab). It will be updated on Tuesday, July 5, to give readers the weekend to watch the new episodes.
After six years of ’80s adventures (minus a three year pandemic delay), we are facing the end of Stranger Things‘ run. The Netflix paranormal hit’s horrifying fourth season has come to a close, and the Duffer Brothers have confirmed that we just have one season left with the Hawkins gang. So just what will come next for a show that has given us a new iconic sci-fi villain (opens in new tab) (and the resurgence of Kate Bush)? Read on for what we know so far.
Final Season
The Duffer Brothers revealed that their series would get a fifth and final season in a letter to fans (opens in new tab) published last February.
“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,” Matt and Ross Duffer wrote. “At the time, we predicted the story would last four or five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but—as you’ll soon see for yourselves—we are now hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last.”
While the rest of the letter focused on the reveal that season 4 would be super-sized, executive producer Shawn Levy explained the creative team’s reasoning in an US Weekly (opens in new tab) interview, saying that the Duffers have been contemplating a thoughtful, fully-formed ending since the show began.
“We don’t want to be one of those shows that outstays its welcome and is flailing while it searches for a way to stick the landing,” he said. “We really want to stick the landing. I feel like we have been able to do that every season and we also want to do it for the series.”
Potential Release Date
We’re luckily in the phase of the pandemic when television production has mostly gone back to its pre-COVID pace, so Stranger Things at least won’t take three years to return. In fact, the Duffers told Variety last month that they already have a plot mapped out for season 5.
“During the six-month pandemic hiatus, we outlined season 5 and pitched it to Netflix,” they said. “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.”
As for shooting the series, the creators also told TVLine (opens in new tab) that they were still working on season 4, volume 2 as of the beginning of June, so their writers’ room hadn’t started up for season 4 yet. Considering the team still has a long way to go, we’ll definitely be waiting at least a year for new episodes.
Plot
While it’s hard to theorize without knowing what happens in the season 4 finale (and who makes it out alive), the Duffers did tell TVLine that a time jump will happen, and is pretty much unavoidable.
“I’m sure we will do a time jump,” Ross Duffer told the outlet. “Ideally, we’d have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that. So these are all discussions we’re going to have with our writers when we start the room up.”
The time jump makes a lot of sense, considering that some of the once-child actors already look way older that high-school freshman (looking at you, Will and Lucas). We can’t imagine the characters moving to college age (imagine them even more split up!), so they’ll probably fast forward to senior year.
In an interview with TheWrap (opens in new tab), the showrunners also revealed that season 5 will be action packed from the first scene.
“Normally it’s like, oh, we get to revisit the characters in their normal lives and how they’re doing and what are their relationships like?” Ross Duffer said. “And then something happens, and then there’s an incident and it goes from there. There’s build up. There’s a lot of build-up and set-up [each season], and 5 is just going to be pedal to the metal from the opening scene. At least that’s what I remember from the outline.”
Spin-Off
Though it hasn’t been announced or confirmed by Netflix, the Duffers have been working on a Stranger Things spin-off for a while. Even in the letter announcing season 5 as the final season, the creators hinted that “there are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes.”
During a Variety (opens in new tab) interview, when asked if they would wait to work on the new series after season 5 is complete, the creators said they probably would.
“There’s a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel,” Ross Duffer said. “I think actually we’re going to start delving into that soon as we’re winding down and finishing these visual effects, Matt and I are going to start getting into it.”
“The reason we haven’t done anything is just because you don’t want to be doing it for the wrong reasons, and it was just like, ‘Is this something I would want to make regardless of it being related to Stranger Things or not?’ And definitely,” Matt added. “Even if we took the Stranger Things title off of it, I’m so, so excited about it. But it is not… It’s going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix.”
Though the duo says the spin-off will be different than what fans expect, they told Variety (opens in new tab) that one person with an intimate knowledge of the show was able to guess.
“We do have an idea for a spinoff that we’re super excited about… but we haven’t told anyone the idea yet, much less written it. We think everyone — including Netflix — will be surprised when they hear the concept, because it’s very, very different. But somehow Finn Wolfhard — who is one crazy smart kid — correctly guessed what it was going to be about. But aside from Finn, no one else knows!”
