Netflix has unveiled the first poster for “Stranger Things” Season 5, teasing the hit sci-fi series’ final adventure ahead of the release of its first trailer tomorrow.
Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) looms large in the poster. With its heroes failing to completely vanquish him, “Stranger Things” Season 4 concluded with the deformed villain’s plan to destroy the barrier between the Upside Down and the real world coming to fruition. That barrier is still broken in the “Stranger Things” Season 5 poster, which features Vecna’s face in a red, smoky sky hanging over Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and their friends as they ride their bikes near a burning Hawkins, Indiana.
The poster promises “one last adventure” still to come, and fans will get their first substantial look at the series’ final chapter when the first “Stranger Things” Season 5 trailer debuts online tomorrow.
In late May, Netflix released the first pieces of completed footage from “Stranger Things” Season 5, which featured — among other things — a terrified Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) screaming at (presumably) his friends to run and a concerned Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) sitting next to a still-comatose Max (Sadie Sink). In conjunction with that teaser, Netflix announced that the series’ highly anticipated final season will be released — much like its fourth — in batches.
The season’s first four episodes are all set to drop on Nov. 26, followed by three more on Dec. 25 and the “Stranger Things” series finale on Dec. 31. The entire core “Stranger Things” cast is back for the series’ fifth season, which will also introduce “Terminator” star Linda Hamilton as a new character.
In the three years since “Stranger Things” Season 4 premiered in the summer of 2022, anticipation has not only steadily built for its follow-up episodes but series creators Matt and Ross Duffer also produced “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a stage play prequel to the Netflix series written by Kate Trefry. The theatrical production made its world premiere in London’s West End in Dec. 2023, followed by a Broadway run that officially began this year at the Marquis Theatre in New York City on April 22.
“Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a documentary about the making of the play and its original West End production, premiered on Netflix on April 15. In June, Netflix also showed as part of its Annecy International Animation Film Festival presentation the first footage from “Stranger Things: Tales From ’85,” an animated spin-off series made in the vein of 1980s Saturday morning cartoons.
The animated show is set between Seasons 2 and 3 of “Stranger Things” and is expected to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2026, after its live-action parent series has already reached its long-dreaded conclusion.
“Stranger Things” Season 5, Volumes 1-3 premiere Nov. 26, Dec. 25 and Dec. 31 on Netflix.
