Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser Promises Epic Final Showdown

A new, extended teaser for Stranger Things Season 5 was released officially. Netflix will drop the full final chapter late this year, and the new trailer is everything fans could have wanted and more.

Odd-looking machinery, aggressive-looking anti-demons known as demo-dogs, flaming action sequences, and finally Linda Hamilton with weapons ablaze, officially joining the Hawkins gang. Even just on a scene-by-scene level, this extended trailer offers some real excitement.

Season 4 saw Vecna, the mastermind villain behind all the horror, ripping open an enormous gate that allowed the Upside Down to spill completely and finally into Hawkins, and this season 5 trailer gives us a strong idea of what this next chapter will bring.

The new season jumps forward a few months to fall, 1987, and Season 5 perfectly coincides with the third anniversary of Will Byers’ disappearance, an event that kicked off the entire series back in Season 1.

The full Stranger Things Season 5 will offer eight episodes, though each episode will be feature-length. In effect, fans of the series will be getting eight Stranger Things films this season.

In the official show description, the stage is being set for the biggest and most emotional chapter to date. Hawkins has been permanently changed and altered by the full opening of the Rifts. Old friends, new allies, all are committed to finding and killing Vecna before he can strike again. The problem is, they don’t know where he is, and the further forward in time the season goes, the more moves are in the mystery of Vecna’s identity. The US government has placed Hawkins under military quarantine and is working to round up Eleven, and she’s on the run, hiding out once more.

The anniversary of Will’s disappearance is looming, and with it, the dread of the Upside Down seeping further into the waking world. This teaser trailer makes one thing clear: the final battle has begun, and the forces of the Upside Down are darker, more dangerous than ever before. The only solution to saving Hawkins? The full party, all allies, must be on hand for this final fight.

Recurring Characters and New Faces

Fans of Stranger Things will be happy to know that the core cast will be back, and several significant recurring characters will be rejoining the crew this season.

Amybeth McNulty will reprise her role from Season 4 as Vicki, and Gabriella Pizzolo will return as Dustin’s girlfriend, Suzzie. Jamie Campbell Bower will also be returning to play Vecna.

And some new faces are joining the Hawkins gang. Linda Hamilton will play the. Kay, and will certainly bring an “I’ll be back” energy to the town, as well as several newcomers to the show. These include Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers.

On the emotional, nostalgia level, the trailer has some real highlights, from the apparent nod to the iconic Jurassic Park kitchen velociraptor sequence, as Lucas and company scramble to hide from the demo-dogs, to psychological, auditory horror moments like listening to Vecna’s “found you.”

There’s an emotional gut punch in the trailer, too, that is certain to resonate with both the characters and the fans, as we see Eddie Munson’s gravestone has been desecrated with the words “Burn in hell” scrawled across it. It’s a reminder, for those who need it, that Eddie’s act of heroism in the Season 4 finale hasn’t changed the opinion of him being a hero in the town of Hawkins. Eddie’s death may well be the most heartbreaking since Bob Newby in Season 2.

It will be interesting to see if the season’s structure will please fans. Netflix is splitting the eight-episode season into three volumes, to be released in three parts. This is sure to irk those who want to binge all at once, but there is at least an effective symmetry to the schedule, and a strong intention for maximum pop-culture discussion and relevance to the show.

The first part of the season, Volume 1, drops on November 26, 2025. Volume 2 will arrive on Christmas Day, December 25, 2025, and the series finale will air on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2025.

This scheduling means that the full journey to the Hawkins last stand will be spread across the holiday season, and the good folks at Netflix are ensuring that Stranger Things will be at the center of pop culture discussion for the next few months.

The Bottom Line

Season 5 of Stranger Things is the end of the line. For long periods of the Netflix series, it’s not just the end of a show that will move them emotionally, but seeing multiple generations of characters come and go, it’s the final chapter of a story that has spanned years, countless hours of speculation, memes, fan theories, and debates. As this new trailer makes clear, this is the final ride.

The question of whether all of the fan favorites will live to see the end remains to be seen. The one guarantee is that when the last credits roll on December 31, the Hawkins gang will have given it their all to end this nightmare, for one last time, together.