The time has come, folks! It’s officially 2025, and Netflix will air the fifth and last season of its blockbuster series Stranger Things at some point this year. The cast and crew are out promoting the upcoming season and Netflix has revealed titles for all eight upcoming episodes:
- "The Crawl"
- "The Vanishing of [REDACTED]"
- "The Turnbow Trap"
- "Sorcerer"
- "Shock Jock"
- "Escape from Camazotz"
- "The Bridge"
- "The Rightside Up"
Those titles left the internet buzzing furiously. What's Turnbow Trap? Where is Camazotz? Is the ‘Rightside Up’ a reference to our world, or will the dark ‘Upside Down’ dimension be forever changed?
Probably the question that has the internet going the most berserk though, is who will vanish in Episode 502? "[REDACTED]" isn't part of the title. There's a name there, and it really is redacted in the video. What are they hiding?
The new episode title is an obvious reference to the first-ever episode of Stranger Things: "The Vanishing of Will Byers." This suggests that whoever is going missing is season 5 will be an important character, and that their disappearance will matter to the plot. Stranger Things 4 ended on a cliffhanger, but as we head back to Hawkins, IN one last time, we need to keep one thing in mind: Stranger Things has always been a mystery series where our favorite teens investigate their way through otherworldly dangers. For anyone worrying about eight episodes of non-stop action drowning out the series' distinctive vibe, slow your roll; there are going to be mysteries aplenty for the Hawkins gang to solve! The disappearance of a major character early in the season will help provide the characters something to quest after before the series builds to its ultimate conclusion.
So who is at risk of being disappeared, and who do we think is safe from the stranger things? Beware SPOILERS for Stranger Things seasons 1-4 below!
Hopper, Will, Eleven, and Max
These characters are probably the safest of anyone in the cast, at least that early in the season. Hopper, Will and Eleven have already disappeared at some point in the Stranger Things story; it would simply be weird for the showrunners to have their big move of the season be to disappear them again.
To refresh everyone’s memories, Will disappears in the series premiere when he is kidnapped into the Upside Down by a Demogorgon, and Hopper disappears after being captured by the Russians in the season 3 finale. Eleven arguably disappears twice, first at the end of season 1 and again when she goes off with Dr. Owens during Stranger Things 4 to get her powers back.
As for Max, she has not disappeared yet, but over the course of season 4, she gets critically injured and is currently in a coma. It would be diabolical for the writers to vanish her from her hospital bed, so she is probably safe…
Dustin, Lukas, Erica, and Robin
These four characters are in a moderate-to-low level of danger. Dustin is perhaps the most capable problem-solver among the younger characters; Robin called him a "genius child" in season 4, which suggests to me that he'll be part of the team investigating who has vanished, not the one everyone else is looking for. Of all the characters, Lukas has the strongest connection to Max — he's her ex-boyfriend — and I don't think the show will cut us off from that emotional link by having Lukas disappear for episodes at a time. He could vanish while trying to help her, though, so it’s not out of the question.
Erica is Lukas' snarky younger sister; with that dynamic established, it feels like a big stretch for the show to abduct her and put her in a position with a monologuing villain. Stranger Things has a lot of horror elements and probably does not want to undermine itself with a plucky child telling off the bad guys. I could see her doing so if 'the vanishing' were at the hands of the U.S. military, which season 4 set up as a secondary antagonistic force, but it's more likely that whoever vanishes, it will be at the hands of Vecna or the Mindflayer; this is the final season, so it's time for the big bad to make their move!
Robin was introduced in season 3, meaning she hasn't had as much time as others to build relationships with existing characters; she got to know Dustin, Steve, and Erica in season 3, but only met the other characters in the season 3 finale. In season 4, she spends most of her time interacting with Steve, Max, Nancy, Dustin and Eddie Munson. Eddie is now dead and Max is in a coma, so her strongest remaining friendships are with Steve, Dustin and Nancy. Robin vanishing would deprive her of the ability to deepen her new friendship with Nancy and build relationships with the other characters, so it probably won’t be her.
Steve, Jonathan, and Joyce
Things are getting more dangerous for these three here, if not hopeless. Jonathan and Joyce are both members of Will’s family; vanishing one of them, thus dumping more trauma on the already extremely traumatized Will, seems unlikely. What’s more, Will’s sexuality was a major plot point in season 4 and we expect the show to expand upon that in season 5. It would be odd to separate Will from Jonathan when Jonathan is one of the few characters able to connect with him. Will was also separated from his mother for the back half of season 4, so that is a point against Joyce vanishing…although Joyce vanishing and her son needing to find her would be an excellent inversion of the original plot from season 1, and give Will a central role and motivation for the final season.
There's a strong case that Steve may vanish…but I just don’t think he will. Steve has been here from the beginning and has strong connections to most of the other characters on the show. He is Nancy’s former (and possibly future) boyfriend, Dustin’s mentor, and an elderly brother figure for all of the younger teens, each of whom he has helped and protected on numerous occasions. He also has been serving as the team’s paladin-style character, slowly evolving into the brave hero that he didn’t seem to be in season 1. Depriving the Hawkins gang of their hero could mix things up a little.
The problem is that actor Joe Keery has so much charisma and chemistry with the other cast members that the show would probably suffer if Steve were separated from the group for a long time…Joe Keery is just too good.
The Wheelers
Along with the Byers family, the Wheeler family has been central to Stranger Things since its inception. Mike and Nancy Wheeler have been key figures in the show’s plot since the beginning. Mike’s search for his missing friend Will leads to him finding Eleven and setting off the entire story. In the series’ second episode, Nancy goes to a party with her best friend Barb in an attempt to impress a guy she has a crush on, only for Barb to brutally die after Nancy leaves her sitting alone outside, which inspires Nancy's own search for answers.
Karen Wheeler (played by the redoubtable Cara Buono) starts the series with little to do except support her children, but slowly takes on a bigger role as the series progresses, including a steamy flirtation in season 3’s summer heat. The disappearance or kidnapping of any member of the Wheeler family would give emotional weight to the season and provide a strong motivation for the remaining members of the cast. Additionally, various leaks on the internet have suggested that the vanishing citizen of Hawkins will be a member of the Wheeler family. But which one?
Mike Wheeler
To the extent that Stranger Things has a main character, it’s Mike’s girlfriend Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). As we have already noted, Eleven disappearing was a major event earlier in the series and the showrunners are unlikely to repeat it. However, Mike’s disappearance would be a major emotional blow to her character and give her, Dustin, Lukas, Will, Nancy, and the the rest powerful motivations and add urgency to the plot. These reasons, as well as the internet’s strong conviction that the vanishing character will be a Wheeler, make Mike a very strong candidate.
The only point against "The Vanishing of Mike Wheeler" is that he spent a good chunk of season 4 away from Eleven, and the show might not want to separate the two young lovebirds as early as Episode 2 of the new season.
Nancy Wheeler
Nancy Wheeler has been one of the main characters in Stranger Things since season 1, and her disappearance would parallel the disappearance of her best friend Barb early in the series, a disappearance that made the internet go completely nuts. She is also at the center of a multi-season love triangle with Jonathan and Steve that has endured since the start of the show and received special attention last season. Her disappearance would, similar to Mike’s, provide a central motivation for every other character in the ensemble cast.
The counterargument is that Nancy has been set up as a Nancy Drew-inspired investigative character for seasons now, with the best detective skills of anyone in the Hawkins gang; Nancy is necessary to solve the vanishing, so how could she be the one who vanishes?
Karen Wheeler
At the start of the series, Cara Buono was one of the most famous actors attached to Stranger Things. The question has always existed, why would someone famous for their roles on Mad Men and The Sopranos agree to a thankless role as a 1980s stay-at-home mom? Perhaps the producers promised her more to do in the future? And as the mother of both Nancy and Mike, Karen Wheeler's vanishing would raise the emotional stakes, at least for those key characters.
Ted or Holly
Netflix, I will fall out of my chair laughing if you vanish Ted Wheeler. Ted (Nancy and Mike’s father) and Holly Wheeler (their youngest sibling) have thus far served as side characters; they've never been involved in the supernatural elements of the show.
Ted Wheeler is more caricature than character; he is a beyond-stereotypical 1980s father who likes to sleep in his armchair and has only the faintest clue about where his children are at any given time, or what they are doing. Holly is a 6-year-old whose main contribution to season 1 was seeing Eleven in the Wheeler household and crying in distress because she had not yet learned how to speak and was thus unable to articulate her fear over the presence of a bald-stranger-child in her family home.
The vanishing of Ted or Holly Wheeler, or even both of them, may seem like a strange choice. (One might even say a stranger choice?) However, both Holly and Ted have obvious emotional value for their two teenage family members who will undoubtedly have huge roles in Stranger Things 5, so don’t count them out completely.
And the (Likely) Winner Is?
WARNING: The information below is AN EXTREME SPOILER for the upcoming season of Stranger Things that draws on leaked set photos. Read at your own risk!
Winner, Winner, Please Don’t Become Dinner
Against all odds, early indications seem to reveal that Holly Wheeler will be the vanishing character of Stranger Things season 5. As posted in this article by ScreenRant, the theory that Holly Wheeler goes missing has taken pride of place on the internet among speculative fans. Leaked set photos show Holly riding a bike with the rest of the Hawkins kids, indicating that for the first time, she will be on a quest this season alongside her siblings and their friends.
Other photos show the actress playing Holly in a scene with Jamie Campbell Bower, the actor that plays the villain Vecna. This on its own doesn't prove anything. Due to the way Eleven and Vecna’s psychic powers work, characters can appear in visions that have no direct bearing on reality. Filming these scenes would still require the actors playing both characters to be on set together, so who knows?
However, Holly Wheeler going missing feels far from just a crazy internet theory. Holly is a very young character and therefore vulnerable in a way the other kids should not be at this point. She is Mike’s and Nancy’s sister and would provide huge emotional stakes for those characters and some opportunities for actress Cara Buono to really flex those acting muscles as Holly’s distraught mother. Also, for the upcoming season, the actress for Holly has been notably recast. What’s more, If you take stock of the siblings of the four original boys in Stranger Things (Mike, Will, Dustin and Lukas), all of them have been dragged into their adventures so far except for Holly. Rather than being a dark horse candidate, Holly could be a goldilocks character who is both young enough to be vulnerable and closely related enough to the other characters to matter.
We will not know anything for sure until Stranger Things 5 airs, but I, for one, am eagerly awaiting to see Episode 2: "The Vanishing of ******."
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