If you had to hold a royal rumble style battle, a melee of sorts, where each contestant was one of Netflix's biggest original streaming series, you'd have to assume that Stranger Things would be one of the last shows standing. This sci-fi extravaganza has gone from a niche and fun take on old-school horror tropes to a world-toppling franchise with movie-length episodes and insane budgets.
We've been waiting for literal years to see its fifth season, and last weekend Netflix finally confirmed when it'll arrive, in three doses. The first set of episodes will be available on 26 November, before more drop on 25 December and a finale streams on 31 December.
The trailer to announce this doesn't contain much new information – in fact, the first half of it is mostly comprised of flashbacks to early scenes from the series, to underline just how far we've come and how much time has passed. It works, too, with some shots of the kids in particular making you feel a bit timey-wimey if you concentrate on it too much.
Still, the second half does give us a bunch of extremely short teases of new moments, including some characters we haven't seen before, returning favourites, and that classic "Eleven screaming and crying" sequence that just can't be left behind. It looks high-budget and likely to be one of the biggest seasons of content Netflix has ever created.
Which brings me back to my starting idea – is Stranger Things Netflix's biggest ever show? I think it's definitely the leader in the sci-fi genre, even though some recent additions like Squid Game have done phenomenally well. The longevity of Stranger Things has just been massive, and it's made stars out of many of its young actors, which is a hallmark of influence.
Whether you're a sceptic of the show or you know every detail about Hawkins and its many classes of students and parents, it looks like you'll spend quite a lot of your December watching the show if you want to see how it all ends. Don't forget, we've heard from plenty of the actors that these final episodes might be gargantuan in length, with a finale that should rival any blockbuster movie.
