Duffer Brothers Tease 'Big and Epic' Stranger Things Season 5: 'Biggest It's Ever Been'

The final installment of the hit series will premiere on Netflix later this year

Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, and Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair in STRANGER THINGS.
Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, and Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair in 'Stranger Things' season 4. Photo:

Tina Rowden/Netflix

Stranger Things is going out with a bang.

The fifth and final season of the beloved Netflix series will premiere later this year on the streamer, and the Duffer Brothers promise that they did not hold back for this final go-around.

Co-creator Matt Duffer described the final season as "big and epic" in a press release. "There’s no time for a ramp-up. It’s going to be intense from beginning to end."

"It’s also going to feel familiar," his brother, Ross Duffer, said. "This season is the biggest it’s ever been in scale, but everyone’s back together in Hawkins, interacting the same way they were in Season 1.”

Fans also got their first sense of what's to come in the final season, as Netflix shared a missing person poster for Millie Bobby Brown's character Jane Hopper, also known as Eleven, on Instagram.

Per the poster, she's been missing since June 1986, and season 5 takes place in the fall of 1987, per a teaser, which means it's been more than a year since she was seen when the show picks up.

As the hit series — which stars Finn Wolfhard, Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Winona Ryder and more — comes to an end, Matt and Ross will have two new exciting projects for the streamer in 2026: The Boroughs and Something Very Bad is Going to Happen.

“We’re gonna be hanging around at Netflix, which has been our home for the past 10 years,” Ross said. "We couldn’t ask for better partners. If you want to tell original stories like we do, this is really the place to be."

Stranger Things Wraps Production on Final Season
Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder and Noah Schnapp are pictured on the set of Stranger Things.

Stranger Things Netflix/Instagram

The creators' tease comes more than a month after the cast wrapped filming the series, which left Wolfhard and his castmates "in shock."

"We shot it for a year and I’ll miss all of my friends and our characters terribly," the 22-year-old, who plays Mike Wheeler, wrote on Instagram along with a photo from season 1 of the cast 10 years younger.

"When I think of the show, I picture this first photo. A bunch of goofy young people making something they think is cool but really have no clue what’s to come. I feel like we’re still those people and I’m lucky to still stand beside them today."

Stranger Things Wraps Production on Final Season
Maya Hawke, Joey Keery, Finn Wolfhard and Charlie Heaton are pictured on the set of Stranger Things.

Stranger Things Netflix/Instagram

Noah Schnapp also posted a lengthy farewell to the show, as he said he was "feeling very emotional" after he'd "wrapped my final scene as Will Byers."

"Stranger Things was more than a job; it was a lifelong dream. A dream made reality thanks to the Duffers. Thank you for taking a chance on me when I was just a 10-year-old kid and entrusting me with something so important to you both," he continued.

"Together, this cast + crew has built something so very special, and I couldn’t be any more excited for the world to see the final chapter. Stranger Things is a never-ending story for me - it’s in my heart forever.❤️."

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Stranger Things season 5 will premiere later this year on Netflix, where seasons 1-4 can now be streamed.

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