Stranger Things 5 creators liken final season to '8 blockbuster movies,' tease franchise future

The future of Stranger Things seems bright, despite the current state of Hawkins, Ind.

Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer appeared on stage in Los Angeles for a globally live-streamed Netflix preview event of the streamer's 2025 film and TV slates. The duo revealed a new behind-the-scenes teaser for Stranger Things 5 in the room, while confirming multiple other offshoots are in development for the franchise. Plus, they showed guests the first look at two of their upcoming non-Stranger Things Netflix series.

"We spent a full year filming this season," Ross told the gathered crowd of Stranger Things 5. "By the end, we had captured over 650 hours of footage. So, needless to say, this is our biggest and most ambitious season yet. It's like eight blockbuster movies. It's pretty, pretty insane."

"At the same [time], we think it's — or hope it's — our most personal story," Matt added. "It was super intense and emotional to film — for us and for our actors we've been with for so long. And we've been making it together for almost 10 years now. There was a lot of crying. There was so much crying. The show means so much to all of us, and everyone put their hearts and souls into it. And we hope — and believe — that passion is going to translate to the screen."

Stranger Things 5 will premiere this year and kick off the story with a one-year time jump from the season 4 finale. Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Brett Gilman, Priah Ferguson, Jamie Campbell Bower, Cara Buono, and Amybeth McNulty all return to their roles. Terminator legend Linda Hamilton joins Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux in new roles.

“Season 5 will be big and epic. There’s no time for a ramp-up. It’s going to be intense from beginning to end," Matt said.

“It’s also going to feel familiar," Ross added. "This season is the biggest it’s ever been in scale, but everyone’s back together in Hawkins, interacting the same way they were in season 1.” 

Matt acknowledged that, while it may be the end of the story for these core characters, "it’s not goodbye for Stranger Things." He confirmed, "There are many more stories to tell." He pointed to Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the stage play and prequel story that is currently showcasing in London's West End. The production makes its stateside debut this March on Broadway.

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Beyond that, "There are more Stranger Things stories to tell and in the works," Matt confirmed. "It’s a bit early at this point to talk about them, but we’re deeply involved in every one. It’s very important to us that anything with the Stranger Things name on it is of the highest quality and not repetitive, that it has a reason to exist and always blazes its own path. And also, it needs to basically just be awesome — or we need to think it’s awesome. And there are a lot of what we think are awesome things in the pipeline."

In any case, the Duffers are sticking around Netflix for the foreseeable future. Through their production company, Upside Down Pictures, Matt and Ross are involved in two new series that are coming in 2026: The Boroughs and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.

The former "probably shares the most DNA with Stranger Things," according to Matt, "because it’s about a group of misfits who fight an otherworldly evil." The setting, however, is a retirement community. Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman, and "a host of other screen icons" star.

Meanwhile, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, written by Haley Z. Boston and directed by Baby Reindeer's Weronika Tofilska, "follows a bride and groom in a chaotic, anxiety-filled week leading up to their wedding," Ross explained. "It dives into the horror and dread that often comes with making a lifelong commitment to someone — something that anyone who’s ever been in a relationship can definitely relate to. We don’t want to say too much more about the story yet, but the title is accurate. Bad things do happen."

Matt said both of these new shows "encompass what we feel is at the core of Stranger Things, and that is they’re stories about ordinary people who encounter the extraordinary."