We have an incoming transmission from Hawkins, Indiana: Stranger Things 5 will arrive later this year. Miss your favorite nerds? They’re back, ready (or not) for whatever Vecna has in store for them in the beloved series’ fifth and final season.

Here’s everything we know so far about Stranger Things 5, now streaming from series creators Matt and Ross Duffer and executive producer Shawn Levy coming this fall.

Watch the Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser

What’s Stranger Things 5 about?

The fifth and final season kicks off in the fall of 1987. 

“Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna,” the official synopsis reads. “But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.”

Matt and Ross Duffer previously told Tudum that they wrote a 25-page mythology document for Netflix back in Season 1 that delves into the lore of the Upside Down. “We were like, ‘We know what’s going on in the Upside Down, more or less, but we want it to be unknowable. We want it to be mysterious,’ ” Matt Duffer explained. “But they were like, ‘Yeah, but can you write it down?’ And so we wrote it all down.”

While the audience learned quite a bit about the Upside Down in Season 4, there’s definitely more to come in Stranger Things 5. “The last remaining questions that are answered in that document, we’ve punted a couple of those to have some big reveals in Season 5,” said Ross Duffer during Geeked Week in June 2022. “And that’s really going to affect what Season 5 is about.” 

To be continued, it seems …

And while you wait for the show’s return, may we suggest a trip to New York to check out the Tony-nominated Stranger Things: The First Shadow play on Broadway? Or head to London to see it on the West End? The original stage play production opened on Dec. 14, 2023, at the Phoenix Theatre. Read everything a nerd needs to know about this new dimension of the Stranger Things universe here.

What are the release dates for Stranger Things 5?

Stranger Things 5 will debut in three volumes this fall: four episodes are now streaming, three episodes
on Christmas, and the finale episode
on New Year’s Eve. Each volume releases at 5 p.m. PST. Find out when Stranger Things 5 premieres in your part of the world here.

Where can I see behind-the-scenes photos from Stranger Things 5?

Check below to see a bevy of BTS photos, including the whole crew assembling for the final season; Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) looking scared in the back of Steve Harrington’s (Joe Keery) BMW; Keery just generally being a pretty damn good babysitter; and Caleb McLaughlin in costume as Lucas.

What are the Stranger Things 5 episode titles?

Check out all the episode titles for the final season of Stranger Things below. You’ll notice that part of Episode 2’s title is missing. Nope, Vecna hasn’t made your screen glitch — the full title of that one remains a surprise!

In the fall of 1987, one last adventure begins …

“The Crawl”

“The Vanishing of …”

“The Turnbow Trap”

“Sorcerer”

“Shock Jock”

“Escape from Camazotz”

“The Bridge”

“The Rightside Up”

What’s the title of the first episode of Stranger Things  5?

On Stranger Things Day 2022, we learned the Season 5 premiere episode title: “The Crawl.” And we hope you’ve been theorizing along with us about what it could mean: What is the Crawl? Who is crawling? Why are they crawling? Where are they crawling to? 

The Stranger Things writers started working on Season 5 on Aug. 2, 2022, almost exactly a month after Season 4, Volume 2 debuted. Since then, they’ve graced the fans with repeated updates on the writing process of Season 5, from beginning their grid stage of writing each episode (Aug. 25, 2022) to completing that grid (Sept. 20, 2022).

Are there any new cast members in Stranger Things 5?

Yep! Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux are joining the cast of Stranger Things 5. Linda Hamilton (The Terminator, Children of the Corn, Chuck) is also set to join the final season, though details about her role are as mysterious as the Upside Down. But we do know that she’s a major fan of the series. “I don’t know how to be a fangirl and an actress at the same time,” she said. “I’m gonna work on that.”

The full Stranger Things 5 ensemble includes: 

• Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers 
• David Harbour as Jim Hopper 
• Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven
• Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler 
• Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson 
• Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
• Noah Schnapp as Will Byers 
• Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield
• Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
• Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers
• Joe Keery as Steve Harrington
• Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley
• Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair
• Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman
• Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna 
• Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler 
• Amybeth McNulty as Vickie 
• Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler  
• Jake Connelly as Derek
• Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers
• Linda Hamilton as Dr. Kay

Go Behind the Scenes with the cast of Stranger Things Season 5