Stranger Things 5 releasing in 2025 is a "safe bet," says Gaten Matarazzo

Stranger Things fans are used to being patient for new episodes, but the wait for the fifth and final season has been particularly hard. The upcoming season has been hit by myriad delays, most notably due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that swept the entertainment industry in 2023. Filming is now very much underway, and the hope is for the final installment to hit screens sometime in 2025.

The final season started filming in January and is expected to wrap in December, or even January 2025, meaning filming could last over a year. In the last few months, the cast have spoken about the series having a bittersweet ending, as well as the pressure to deliver a satisfying finale. As for when we can expect to actually see new episodes drop on Netflix, star Gaten Matarazzo believes 2025 is a safe estimate. "The plan for people seeing it is definitely next year," he told The Direct. "That's the goal. And there's always setbacks. There's always things that come into play when making a season, especially one that's huge. So there's no guarantees, but I think next year is a safe bet."

"The rest of the town, obviously, [are] now finally well aware that some sh-t is going down...I think it's the same, like, vibe we know and love about this gang and getting on their adventures and, of course, the ultimate goal of stopping all this and preventing the Upside Down from infiltrating. But in the context of some pretty serious blows to the group. Of course, Dustin suffered a pretty serious loss at the end of four, and you witnessed the death of a really, really close friend..."

A 2026 release would mean three years would have passed since season 4. In that time, many of the show's stars will have gone from being teenagers to adults. They aren't kids anymore, that's for sure!

Stranger Things 5 has a "satisfying" ending

In the final moments of Stranger Things season 4, the hellish Upside Down landscape began to spill into the quaint town of Hawkins, Indiana. Moreover, the threat of Vecna still looms large. The season very much ended on a cliffhanger. Prepare for one huge final battle in the finale. And, of course, a super-emotional ending.

When asked by NME about the show's ending, Matarazzo explained why he things it will satisfy fans. "The way that the shows have been going, the seasons have been progressing, the way we go about this last one just seems like the ultimate plan that Matt [Duffer] and Ross [Duffer] have always had, and it feels like a really satisfying way to kind of put the button on it and seal it once and for all," he said.

Matarazzo also weighed in on the final season to The Hollywood Reporter:

"The one consistency of this show is that it just grows every year in scale and size and in the message that they want to bring. So this season is not different in the slightest, and I knew that they had prepped that, initially. They said, ‘Hey, this one is going to be really, really big. We’re not going to candy-coat it: it’s a full year shoot.’ And that led to a big reaction of, like, ‘Oh, so we’re really going for it.’ So we have been [going for it] and we still are."

The series finale will doubtless be a tear-jerker. Prepare yourselves, folks! In the meantime, we can all head back to Hawkins for Stranger Things seasons 1 through 4.

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