‘Stranger Things' finally gets release date for highly anticipated fifth and final season

It's almost time to return to Hawkins, Indiana, for a fifth and final time.

“Stranger Things” Season 5 is dropping on Netflix in three parts this fall, the streaming platform announced at its fan event, Tudum, May 31.

The first part of Season 5, which will have four episodes, will be released on November 26. The second part, containing three episodes, will be available on Christmas Day, December 25. And the final episode will be released on New Year's Eve, December 31. Each “Stranger Things” volume will be available at 8:00 p.m. EST.

Season 5’s official release date comes more than three years after Season 4 first premiered in two installments. The first seven episodes dropped in May 2022, followed by two supersized episodes in July. The Season 4 finale, titled “The Piggyback,” clocked in at a whooping 2 hours, 30 minutes.

Season 5 is so far known to have eight episodes, with the following titles:

1. “The Crawl”
2. “The Vanishing of …”
3. “The Turnbow Trap”
4. “Sorcerer”
5. “Shock Jock”
6. “Escape from Camazotz”
7. “The Bridge”
8. “The Rightside Up”

When “Stranger Things” co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer shared in 2022 that Season 4 would air in two volumes, they also confirmed that the show, which premiered in 2016, would end with Season 5.

At the time, they called the events of Season 4 — which introduced the series’ true big bad, the humanoid psychokinetic being Vecna — “the beginning of the end.”

Season 4 ended with the reveal that Vecna (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) is responsible for the alternate dimension known as the Upside Down being as terrifying as it is. All along, he was the brain behind each monster, such as Season 2’s Mind-Flayer.

In the explosive finale, Vecna nearly kills Max (Sadie Sink) and briefly stops her heart, connecting Hawkins even more closely to the Upside Down.

The final scene sees everyone’s favorite motley crew realize that the Upside Down is actively invading their world, setting the stage for the final battle to be back in Hawkins, where it all began.

The cast of “Stranger Things” Season 5 is consistent with past installments. Millie Bobby Brown, who was just 11 when she was cast as Eleven and is now 21, as well as Finn Wolfhard, Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo and Noah Schnapp are all confirmed for Season 5.

Leads Winona Ryder and David Harbour also appear in photos from production, as well as Cara Buono, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Maya Hawke and Priah Ferguson.

Netflix announced in 2023 that “Terminator” star Linda Hamilton would join the show for the fifth season.

Filming for “Stranger Things” Season 5 occurred throughout 2024 and wrapped Dec. 20 of that year, after initial delays due to the writers’ and actors’ strike. 

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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