Streaming hit enters its final round "Stranger Things" season 5 is finally coming - here's what you need to know

The final season of "Stranger Things" not only brings the story to a close, but also a chapter in streaming history. Here's everything you need to know about the grand finale of the streaming hit.

The time has finally come: three years after the last season, the fifth and final season of the hit series "Stranger Things" is coming to Netflix. It marks the end of a global pop culture phenomenon. An overview of everything you need to know about the conclusion of the Netflix hit.

In the fifth season, the story of "Stranger Things" is heading towards its final climax. Hawkins is badly damaged and the door to the Upside Down is more open than ever before. The characters have only one goal left: to find the antagonist Vecna and kill him. But he has disappeared without a trace and the government has quarantined Hawkins in order to intensify the hunt for Eleven. Netflix has not revealed any more about the plot so far.

The first four episodes of the new "Stranger Things" season will be released on November 27, three more on December 26 and the finale on January 1. The finale will also be shown in cinemas in the USA and Canada.

Filming for the fifth season began in January 2024 and continued until December. It was originally scheduled for the end of 2023, but when screenwriters went on strike in Hollywood in spring 2023, this also affected "Stranger Things" and the start of filming was delayed.

According to reports, the cost per episode is said to be between 50 and 60 million US dollars. The entire season would have cost between 400 and 480 million dollars. This makes the series one of the most expensive TV productions. For comparison: "Game of Thrones" cost around 15 million per episode in the later seasons.

This is partly due to the length of the individual episodes. As in season 4, the individual episodes will each be more than an hour long. The finale is even set to last over two hours.

The story of "Stranger Things" is inevitably linked to that of streaming service Netflix. The mystery success has made Netflix what it is today and vice versa.

Netflix was founded in 1997, but was a DVD-only rental service for twenty years. In 2007, Netflix introduced streaming and began to expand. 2010 to Canada, 2011 to Latin America, 2012 to the UK, 2014 to Switzerland. In 2016, Netflix was able to play "Stranger Things" in 20 languages and 190 countries simultaneously - and the series became a global phenomenon practically overnight.

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The first season of "Stranger Things" won five Emmy Awards, the most prestigious television prize. The series became Netflix's flagship as a producer of its own content and played a key role in anchoring the streaming service in pop culture.

The success did not stop with the first season. The following chapters of the series helped make "Stranger Things" one of the most-watched productions on Netflix to this day.

The idea behind the series came from Matt and Ross Duffer - the "Duffer Brothers". The twin brothers are said to have approached production companies with a simple pitch: "What if Steven Spielberg made a movie of a book by Stephen King?"

The series was a bold project for the Duffer Brothers: "Stranger Things" was their first show of their own. They had previously made a movie and worked on a series, but had never directed a major production. Netflix nevertheless gave them the creative freedom to realize their vision without major intervention. The result was the unmistakable tone of the series.

The first season of "Stranger Things" was released in 2016. The main characters Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo were all between 11 and 13 years old at the time of filming. They grew up with the series. Today, almost ten years later, Brown is 21 years old and has already become a mother.

The actors have been in the public eye for half of their lives. Matt and Ross Duffer recently said they were happy about their development. "I think a lot of the cast have become a lot more confident over time," Matt Duffer told the German Press Agency at the "Stranger Things" premiere in Berlin.

"When we first worked with them, most of them had never been in front of the camera before. We are proud of how they have grown and matured - both as actors and as people."

Nevertheless, growing up in the public eye was not always easy for the 'Stranger Things' stars. In March 2025, Brown complained that people were always comparing her appearance to the version she had ten years ago.

"I grew up in front of the world. And for some reason, people can't seem to grow up with me," she complained in an Instagram video. People wish she still looked like she did back then. "But because I don't, I become a target," Brown continued, citing media reports that dealt with her appearance.

Shortly before the start of the final season, the Daily Mail reported in early November that Millie Bobby Brown had made allegations against her colleague David Harbour (playing police chief Jim Hopper).

"Millie Bobby Brown filed a harassment and bullying complaint before filming began on the final season. There were pages and pages of allegations. The investigation took months," said a source, adding that sexual assault was not part of the allegations.

Brown was therefore assigned a personal chaperone during the filming of the last season.

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Brown and Harbour have not yet commented on the report. But at the premiere of "Stranger Things" just a few days later, they appeared unimpressed, appeared in public together and even hugged.

From Fortnite skins and merchandise to collectible figures. 'Stranger Things' is no longer just a streaming hit, but a broadly marketed franchise that has everything you need for a good capitalist cultural asset in this day and age. Even a stage adaptation is now part of it: "Stranger Things: The First Shadow", developed on the basis of an idea by the Duffer Brothers, tells the prehistory of the series and premiered in London's West End in 2023. The transfer to New York's Broadway followed in 2025.

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