Netflix just shared a new feature for Stranger Things, and it includes new footage from season 5, which premieres on Thanksgiving.
When Stranger Things kicked off in July of 2016, few people if any could have even begun to predict just how much of a cultural juggernaut the series would become. What began as a fairly low-key riff on the tried-and-true Amblin aesthetic and tone of the ‘80s, created by the then relatively unknown Duffer Brothers, caught on like wildfire and became one of the most popular pieces of media not just on Netflix, but in existence, period.
It was the exact right show at the exact right time, hitting when the streaming platform had essentially cornered the market on streaming TV and delivering a nostalgic yet deeply satisfying viewing experience for audiences around the globe.
In the aftermath of the first season’s surprising runaway success, the team reconvened quickly and cranked out a second season with a very impressive turnaround time, hitting screens just over a year after the first season had.
However, while the second season was still an enormous commercial success, it was hit with far harsher responses from fans and critics alike than the first season was. As such, the Stranger Things team took their time formulating a third season, which grew to be bigger and grander than the prior two. Season 3 was released two full years after the prior season, which seems to have started a trend, as season 4 wouldn’t release until three years after that.
Now, season 5 is finally releasing another three-and-a-half years after that. This has been one of the biggest criticisms of these later seasons of the show for some time now: how long it takes for them to release. However, in a newly released feature for the upcoming fifth season, the team and Netflix’s marketing department smartly steer into the skid on this, striving to turn it into a strength of the show rather than a weakness.
This new spot features tons of footage from previous seasons which is intercut with footage from the new season, all with narration from the various stars of the series waxing philosophical about what a journey the series has taken them and audiences on.
Of course, at the center of it all is the primary group of kids, who started filming the first season as literal children over a decade ago and have since come-of-age over the course of the series. This has long been a low-hanging-fruit of a critique of the show (that the actors have aged out of the roles), but this teaser turns that into a feature rather than a bug, re-emphasizing how the actors have evolved and changed alongside the audiences watching the show.
It’s an inspired bit of marketing, and one that hones in on what has always made Stranger Things such a sensation: the characters and heart at the center of it.
Even in more recent years, as there has been an outright onslaught of bid-budget blockbuster streaming series, Stranger Things has remained in an echelon of its own, reigniting that same fiery passion in fans each time a new season releases.
At the end of the day, the promo does a stellar job for selling the finality and high-stakes nature of this final season, and features plenty of teases about the various creatures, events, and deaths audiences can look forward to seeing when Stranger Things 5 finally hits screens later this year.
Watch Stranger Things season 5 on Netflix beginning Thanksgiving (Nov. 26) at 8 p.m. ET, following by new episodes on Christmas (Dec. 25) and the series finale on New Year's Eve (Dec. 31).