The 'Stranger Things' season 5 trailer teases a final showdown with Vecna. Here's everything we know about the end of the hit Netflix series.

Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in season five of "Stranger Things."Netflix"Stranger Things" season five will be the final installment of the hit Netflix series.Season five will be split into three parts, with the first premiering on November 26.The latest trailer teases a final showdown between the Hawkins gang and Vecna.Since premiering in 2016, "Stranger Things" has become one of the most popular Netflix series of all time. The supernatural drama, set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s, is now headed into its fifth and final season.Its stellar young cast — long one of the show's biggest strengths — is now comprised of adults. Millie Bobby Brown's breakout role as Eleven has led to her becoming a star in her own right, producing films like "Enola Holmes" and pursuing other projects away from her "Stranger Things" image. Netflix announced in February 2022 that the show's fifth season would be its last, bringing a conclusion to the story of Eleven, Hawkins, and the Upside Down. And while there are plenty of "Stranger Things" spinoff projects in the pipeline (and other shows to catch up on in the meantime), it's hard not to be excited about an ending that David Harbour said left members of the cast "uncontrollably crying" during a table read. Here's everything we know about season five of the show.The first official teaser shows all the main characters united against Vecna.Released on July 16, 2025, the trailer includes shots of all the key remaining characters, including Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), Jim Hopper (David Harbour), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke), Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), and, of course, Brown's Eleven.Brief clips of Max in a hospital bed and Dustin kneeling in front of a grave call back to season four's major events. Other shots, including a group of kids in a bunker, are more mysterious."Wherever this blood leads, I need you to fight one last time," Hopper says to Eleven. "Let's end this, kid."The teaser concludes with a glimpse of Jamie Campbell Bower's villainous Henry Creel, aka Vecna, emerging from a torn barrier — perhaps crossing over from the Upside Down into the real world. He utters one menacing line of dialogue: "Found you."The season five plot synopsis teases a "final battle" between Hawkins residents and Vecna.Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, and Jake Connelly as Derek in season five of "Stranger Things."Netflix"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. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown," the synopsis for season 5 reads."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."Season five will be released in three parts.Netflix announced that the final season will be released in three parts.The first four episodes are set to arrive on November 26. The next three episodes are then due to air on December 25, before the much-anticipated finale lands on December 31.Audiences already know most of the episode titles.In a teaser, Netflix released titles (or at least partial titles) for eight episodes in season five. They are, presumably in order: "The Crawl," "The Vanishing of...," "The Turnbow Trap," "Sorcerer," "Shock Jock," "Escape from Camazotz," "The Bridge," and "The Rightside Up."Netflix also shared behind-the-scenes photos from season five on Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Stranger Things Netflix (@strangerthingstv)Production on "Stranger Things" season five kicked off in January 2024 after initially being delayed by the writers' strike.The cast of "Stranger Things" season five with Matt and Ross Duffer.Atsushi Nishijima/NetflixIn a May 6, 2023 tweet from the writers' room X account, the Duffer brothers announced that production was being put on pause until the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers had reached a "fair deal.""Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins," the tweet began. "While we're excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then — over and out. #wgastrong."On January 8, 2024, the official "Stranger Things" account posted on X that the fifth season had entered production. "THIS IS A CODE RED," the post read. "STRANGER THINGS 5 production has officially begun!!!"On July 15, 2024, Netflix released a behind-the-scenes featurette from the set of "Stranger Things" season five, marking the halfway point of filming for the final season."I started when I was 10," Brown says in the video. "I'm now turning 20 years old. It feels very weird."The teaser also features appearances from other members of the primary cast. Season five newcomer Linda Hamilton of "Terminator" fame also briefly gets the spotlight.There are some fun glimpses in the trailer of Dustin wearing a Hellfire Club shirt (RIP Eddie) and the original four — Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will — attending school together. There's also a brief shot of Hawke and Ryder sharing a scene, and one glimpse of Mike's younger sister Holly looking shocked by something off-screen.The series finale will probably be really long.Eleven works to regain her powers in "Stranger Things" season four, part one.NetflixDuring a July 2022 episode of the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, the Duffer Brothers told host Josh Horowitz that they didn't expect the show's final season to be as long as season four, in part because it won't require the exposition that season four did. "I don't know if it's gonna be going 100 miles per hour at the start of five, but it's gonna be moving pretty fast," Matt Duffer said. "Characters are already gonna be in action, they're already gonna have a goal and drive, and I think that's gonna carve out at least a couple hours and make this season feel really different."Ross Duffer said, however, that they're likely to have another "two-and-a-half-hour episode" for the series finale in order to avoid a television phenomenon in which a series' climax falls in the penultimate episode while the finale acts as more of a "wind down."Still, the brothers said that during the writing process, things could change.Season five will explain more about the Upside Down.Vecna is the villain of "Stranger Things 4."NetflixRoss Duffer told Netflix Geeked in 2022 that lingering questions about the Upside Down, such as why it's frozen in time to the point where Will was taken in season one, would be answered in season five. "The answers to what the Upside Down actually is, is really gonna be the core of what season five is, and the mysteries of season five," Ross said. "And those answers are really gonna lead us to the conclusion of this story."The Duffer brothers said they "feel good" about the "Stranger Things" ending.Winona Ryder and Brett Gelman in season four of "Stranger Things."NetflixThe brothers told Collider in July 2022 that they had confidence in the show's ending."We do feel good about the ending," Matt Duffer said. "I was like, OK, I think this ending is not… I'm not super insecure. I'm insecure about a lot of things, but I feel like this ending feels good." The end of the story was apparently emotional enough to make Netflix executives cry.Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in "Stranger Things."NetflixIn 2022, Ross Duffer told The Wrap that when he and Matt pitched season five to Netflix, some tears were shed in the room."I mean, it was hard. It's the end of the story," he told the publication. "I saw executives crying who I've never seen cry before and it was wild. And it's not just to do with the story, just the fact that it's like, 'Oh my God, this thing that has defined so many of our lives, these Netflix people who have been with us from the beginning, seven years now,' and it's hard to imagine the journey coming to an end."Palmer Haasch contributed to a previous version of this story.Read the original article on Business Insider

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