If there’s one date to mark down in the cultural zeitgeist calendar this year, it's the releases date(s) for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things on Netflix. The only problem is… no one knows the dates yet. Showrunners Ross and Matt Duffer and various cast members have assured us that the final episodes are coming out this year, but we are now into May without a release date or so much as a teaser trailer, which basically means we can rule out a big summer blockbuster release. A teaser posted earlier this year revealed the episode titles, but that was all.
But never fear! Stranger Things is one of the most CGI-heavy shows out there, so the lack of a trailer is significantly less worrying than you would think. They are probably going to be updating the visuals almost up to the week of release, so footage for a full-length trailer will only be available a couple months in advance. The first four seasons of Stranger Things were released in July, October, July again, and then May and July (;the fourth season was released in two batches). These release dates, with the exception of the first season, often paralleled the in-world setting of the show, with season 2 happening during Halloween, Season 3 taking place around the 4th of July, and season 4 taking place in the spring.
It has been confirmed that season 5 will be taking place in the fall of 1987, almost a year and a half after the events of season 4. If they follow the trend previously established by the last three seasons, this would indicate that that Stranger Things 5 will be given a autumnal release date to fit with what happens onscreen.
There are other pieces of evidence that support the idea of a fall 2025 release date: like season 4, Stranger Things 5 is also rumored to be releasing its episodes in two batches, with the goal of increasing the amount of time people will have to discuss the show. The holiday season includes Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, all opportunities for the show to release when families are gathering and friends are catching up, and perhaps looking for a show to watch.
One last (fairly banal) reason to suspect a late 2025 release date is that Stranger Things has been Netflix’s flagship show since it was first released in 2016, and Netflix might want to keep its viewership numbers up for the final fiscal quarter of 2025. Even with as much magic as the streaming service has brought to us, they are a mega-corporation and act accordingly…but at least we’ll still be getting the show this year!
We'll very likely get an official date at the end of this month at Netflix's annual TUDUM event, when the streamer shows off what it has coming down the pike:
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