If there’s one takeaway from the official trailer for Netflix’s Stranger Things season five, it’s that the final season is going to pack an emotional wallop. The trailer checks in with all of the key players and ends on a threatening note, with Vecna declaring, “William, you are going to help me…one last time.”
Season five stars Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, and David Harbour as Jim Hopper. Sadie Sink plays Max Mayfield, Natalia Dyer is Nancy Wheeler, Charlie Heaton is Jonathan Byers, Joe Keery is Steve Harrington, and Maya Hawke is Robin Buckley.
Rounding out the ensemble are Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair, Brett Gelman as Murray, Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna, Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler, Amybeth McNulty as Vickie, Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers, and Linda Hamilton as Dr. Kay.
In support of the final season’s official trailer drop, the stars of the critically acclaimed sci-fi series described exactly where we catch up with their characters:
Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) – “Eleven is in training mode. She’s in a warrior state, which is the first time you see Eleven like that at the beginning of a season. As for her mindset, all she is thinking about is protecting her friends. Her friends are her chosen family, so she will do whatever it takes to protect them and we’re going to see that.”
Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) – “Dustin is kind of in a bit of a funk. I think everybody probably is considering the state that Hawkins is in, and it’s getting a little bit harder for the gang to keep all the pieces together. We’re all dealing with the day-to-day issues of what it is to try to keep everybody safe and figure out where Vecna is, while having a lot of unpacked baggage from the events in the previous season.”
Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) – “It’s always been in the beginning of a season that everything is all good, but this is the first season we come into it and the stakes are the same as where we left off. We haven’t defeated Vecna and the problem is still there. We’re still trying to figure it out and we may not be able to figure it out, so you feel that burden on Lucas as well as everyone else on the show. Everyone is on edge and we’re all just trying to keep hope alive.”
Noah Schnapp (Will) – “Will is back in Hawkins this season. He was out of Hawkins for the last season, so now we’re seeing the effects of him being back in that realm. We kind of hit the ground running right away this season, which is really exciting and not how we’ve started any other season. Everyone is all in one place and we all have the same objective.”
Sadie Sink (Max) – “We ended Season 4 in a tough place for Max. Her final moments were her in a hospital bed. Eleven was searching for her in the void and couldn’t find her, so Max is definitely not the way she once was. There’s still a small glimmer of hope, though, and her friends are hanging on to that.”
Finn Wolfhard (Mike) – “Mike is back in leadership mode, and he’s kind of taken it more upon himself to help plan out these missions, and he and the whole gang are devoted to finding Vecna and ending this.”
Volume 1 of the fifth and final season premieres on November 26, 2025, followed by Volume 2 on December 25th. The eighth episode of the season (and series finale) debuts on December 31st at 5pm PT. The finale will screen in 350+ theaters on December 31st, also beginning at 5pm PT, and run through January 1st.
Netflix offers this description of Stranger Things season five:
“The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished—his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding.
As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming—and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone—the full party—standing together, one last time.”
- Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Noah Schnapp and Shawn Levy Press Conference
- Details on the Series Finale
This post was last modified on December 2, 2025 12:07 pm