Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers have teased that the show’s upcoming final season will include “one of the biggest, craziest episodes that we’ve ever done.”
The fifth season will comprise eight episodes released in three stages. The first four episodes will arrive on Netflix on Thanksgiving, November 26. The next three episodes will hit screens on Christmas Day, with the very last episode arriving on New Year’s Eve.
Speaking at the Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit in Los Angeles, co-creator Ross Duffer revealed that the final season finds the young heroes from Hawkins, Indiana, being more proactive than usual.
“The thing we're really excited about with this season is that, really from the very beginning of it, our characters are active. They're searching for Vecna,” said Duffer.
“This isn't going about normal life and then something supernatural happens to them, which is what we usually do. They have to solve this mystery. This is them active, which is exciting. They're going [into] ‘on a mission mode’ in episode one, which is great.”
He added that the story was conceived with the release schedule in mind, unlike the fourth season which was split into two volumes after the fact.
“I would also say we're excited too, in terms of the release pattern, that we knew what it was! Unlike season four, which due to the pandemic... that's why that got split up the way it was. It wasn't written towards that,” explained Duffer.
“So we're really excited about that. We designed the story specifically for the release shape. Those first four episodes, which release on Thanksgiving, are really building to one of the biggest, craziest episodes that we've ever done.”
Earlier this year, Netflix released an official synopsis for the final season. It reads: “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.
“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.”
