The cast and crew of Stranger Things finished filming the fifth and final season in December 2024. While there's been speculation about the season 5 release date since season 4 hit Netflix in the summer of 2022, the rumor mill is finally heating up anew here in the new year.
Earlier this month, fans reportedly found a possible release date (Nov. 27, 2025) for Stranger Things season 5. Now, the Netflix blog What's on Netflix is reporting a new rumor that season 5 will be split into two parts. The release for part 1 would be sometime in October followed by part 2 in November. What's on Netflix did not report any specific release dates.
In other words, the rumor suggests the release dates for Stranger Things season 5 will coincide with the fall holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Netflix hasn't commented on the latest rumors yet.
Based on how Netflix has rolled out new seasons of its biggest shows over the last few years, it was basically a given that they were going to split Stranger Things season 5 into two (or more!) parts. Recently, almost every big show, except Squid Game season 2 and The Night Agent season 2, has been released in two parts.
Netflix even did the same thing with Stranger Things season 4 in the summer of 2022, but it was a strange split. Netflix released the first seven episodes of season 4 on May 27, but then they waited four weeks until July 1 to drop the remaining two episodes. Most of the time, Netflix does more of a 50/50 split.
There are eight episodes in the final season of Stranger Things. If this rumor about the split season and October-November release is accurate, we'll likely see four episodes drop in October and then the final four episodes drop in November.
Why a fall release makes sense for Stranger Things season 5
As mentioned, there's been a lot of talk and speculation about when Stranger Things season 5 could premiere. With production wrapping so late in 2024, there's almost no question that the new season was coming in Q3 or Q4 2025. There's just so much post-production and visual effects work on a show like Stranger Things that needs to take place. Plus, everything we've heard about the final season suggests these are going to be eight mega-episodes, or "movies," as Maya Hawke told the Podcrushed podcast.
I was hoping that Stranger Things season 5 would premiere in the summer of 2025. Remember, three of the four seasons have premiered in July. The only one that didn't, Stranger Things season 2, premiered on October 27, 2017. If the latest release window rumors are true, season 5 would likely premiere right around the end of October, with the remaining episodes hitting Netflix during Thanksgiving week about four weeks later.
So far, we've seen three seasons of Stranger Things coincide with holiday weekends. The lone exception is Stranger Things season 1, which premiered on July 15, 2016. Season 2 was a Halloween release, as mentioned. Season 3 premiered on Fourth of July weekend in 2019. Season 4, the split season, was released on Memorial Day weekend and Fourth of July weekend in 2022.
Again, Netflix has not commented on the Halloween/Thanksgiving release windows rumor yet, but they also haven't outright denied them. There have been Netflix date leaks and rumors in the past that have turned out to be wrong, but others have been accurate. There's definitely a growing list of reasons why Stranger Things season 5 could premiere this fall, and these latest rumors are on the list.
Stay tuned for more news about Stranger Things season 5 and its premiere date!
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