Elsewhere, Vecna was severely injured by Nancy, Steve, and Robin at Creel House. When the trio try to find Vecna's body, though, it's gone, with the series' primary villain crawling off to recover from his defeat. In the same interview, Ross Duffer elaborated even more about Will's storyline in season 5: “Will really takes center stage again in 5. This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together. Will is used to being the young one, the introverted one, the one that’s being protected. So part of his journey, it’s not just sexuality — it’s Will coming into his own as a young man.” On May 6th, the Duffers wrote on the Stranger Writers account that ruled out any filming taking place without the involvement of the writer’s posting: As for potential character deaths, we think Eleven and Mike will survive. However, Finn Wolfhard said he'd be open to Mike dying under one condition (via GQ). Hopper, Joyce, and Will have all been through a lot (much like Eleven), so we suspect they'll make it out alive. Everyone else, though, is fair game as far as we're concerned. Stranger Things season 5 is going to be the deadliest yet, which implies some main characters will bite the dust.

Sadly, for the people of Hawkins, those unable to get out of the town before a quarantine starts may have to fend for themselves while the military wage war against the forces of the Upside Down. Will takes a central role in Season 5 Teasing what else fans can expect, Matt Duffer told TVLine that season 5 will likely feature a time jump, before revealing (via the Happy Sad Confused podcast) it'll get right into the action from its first episode. That's before a tense and captivating final few episodes, which he describes as being Lord of the Rings-esque in tone. Speaking on the red carpet for the BoxLunch Gala honoring Feeding America, star David Harbour said (per Variety) teased principal photography might begin on season 5 as early as November 12, saying: "We've got to film that last season of Stranger Things, don’t we? I've got to be down there, like, in a couple of days." Alongside the announcement of The Duffer Brothers re-upping their Netflix deal, we also got word they’re working on multiple spin-offs – some of which we’ve got more information on.Additionally, Doctor Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) was left handcuffed to a pipe in the subterranean Nina Project, while Vecna (Jamie Campbell-Bower) disappeared after being severely injured by Nancy, Steve, and Robin. Both are nailed on return, in our opinion – they're too important not to – but Netflix hasn't confirmed they're part of proceedings yet. An encounter with the Upside Down evolves into a grand adventure for video game-loving twin brothers living on the outskirts of 1980s Tokyo.” Joseph Quinn, who previously played beloved fan favorite Eddie Munson in the fourth season of the series, gave a shoutout and support to the writers from the show after his MTV Award Win for Breakthrough Performance: Harbour's comments don't mean filming has begun, mind you. It could be that the cast have reunited to conduct table reads ahead of production beginning in earnest, but we can't help but think principal photography may have secretly begun already.

Ross Duffer corroborated Schnapp's comments in a chat with Variety, adding: "Will really takes center stage again. This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together. Will is used to being the young one, the introverted one, the one that’s being protected. So part of his journey, it’s not just sexuality – it’s Will coming into his own as a young man." Stranger Things VR – The video game VR project from Tender Claws will be released in November 2023. Given the danger that the gates pose to Hawkins and the rest of the world, the military may declare martial law and potentially quarantine Hawkins. We can expect a robust military presence, especially if Demogorgons and other monstrosities begin to surf from the gates.There isn't a total count of episodes yet, but while appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Matt Duffer revealed that season 5 will be regular-sized, not super-sized like season 4 (which had a total runtime of nearly 13 hours). “The only reason we don’t expect [it] to be as long is, this season, if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery," Matt said. "You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they’re struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve’s trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in Season 5]." With a year of filming planned and potentially not starting until the end of Summer or even into the Fall, any hope of a 2024 release date is over; we now expect Stranger Things season 5 to be released on Netflix sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2025 at the absolute earliest. But apparently, Finn Wolfhard took one guess at what the spinoff series was about and got it right. "Finn Wolfhard, he wasn't spitballing, he just went, 'I think this would be a cool spin-off,'" Ross shared with Variety. "And we were like, 'How in the world…?'" Untitled Stranger Things Live-Action Series – Spin-off series based on an original idea by The Duffer Brothers, with Upside Down and 21 Laps producing.