Hawkins Gears Up for War in Stranger Things Season 5

Netflix just released a second extended trailer for Stranger Things 5, the fifth and final season of the wildly popular supernatural horror series. Season 5 premieres later this year, and the new footage offers everything we could have hoped for and more. We get to see a glimpse of what will likely be the final battle between Hawkins’ resident heroes and the evils of the Upside Down.

Not one minute is wasted on the almost three-minute trailer. The Upside Down has crept further into Hawkins. The faces of the demo-dogs look closer than ever as they are shown prowling the shadowy halls. There are plenty of fiery explosions involving flamethrowers. But the biggest surprise in the new footage is seeing Linda Hamilton, armed and ready for battle, standing alongside the Hawkins gang.

Stranger Things 4 ended on a shocker, the kind of massive cliffhanger that only Stranger Things can do. In the last episode, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the terrifying shadow man behind all of the Upside Down’s atrocities, shattered a massive gate, letting the Upside Down flood out into Hawkins. Season 5, the trailer makes clear, will open some time after the events of the Season 4 finale. It takes place in the fall of 1987, so the whole arc neatly coincides with the third anniversary of Will Byers’ disappearance, which, of course, was the catalyst for everything that happened in Season 1.

Netflix has not officially announced the release date for the entire season. But since the teaser confirms there will be eight episodes in the fifth and final season, and we know those episodes will be feature-length, we can expect eight Stranger Things movies this fall.

The Season 5 premise is intriguing, to say the least. Hawkins has changed forever with the Rift’s opening. Both the original cast and new arrivals are united in one goal: to find Vecna and kill him. But no one knows where to look. And with the U.S. government quarantining Hawkins in the hands of the military and hunting down Eleven, our heroes are in a race against time.

The trailer itself also makes clear that all is not well. The closer we get to the third anniversary of Will’s disappearance, the more sense of impending doom fills the air. The monster they will face this time around will be scarier and deadlier than anything they have encountered before. The only thing that will save Hawkins is the full party. All allies have to be there for the fight of their lives.

The usual gang is all back, but many of our favorite recurring characters are also there. Amybeth McNulty and Gabriella Pizzolo are back as Vicki and Suzie, Dustin’s girlfriend. Of course, Jamie Campbell Bower is back as Vecna. The show also adds a few new characters. Linda Hamilton will play Dr. Kay, a character who was last seen in a deleted scene from Season 4. Other new additions include Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers.

There are so many little moments in the teaser trailer that are guaranteed to get people pumped. One of the best bits involves Lucas and others hunkering down, trying to hide from a group of demo-dogs. The scene is a clear throwback to the best-known scene in all of Jurassic Park: the velociraptor kitchen scene. For fans of psychological horror, the sound of Vecna’s monstrous “found you” is enough to make the skin crawl.

The teaser trailer also delivers a gut punch that will make some people angry, and others tear up. One brief moment shows Eddie Munson’s gravestone, clearly vandalized, with someone having spray-painted the words “Burn in hell” on it. It’s a cruel reminder that despite sacrificing his life in the Season 4 finale to save Eleven and the Hawkins gang, many people in Hawkins still view Eddie as a monster. Eddie’s death, one of the most heartbreaking losses in the series since Bob Newby died in Season 2, will not soon be forgotten by any of the characters. And though the truth about him and his death will come out, his gravestone will likely remain defaced. It’s a raw reminder of how the mob can too-quickly decide who’s a hero and who’s a villain, and how an injustice remains an injustice no matter how many people have decided otherwise.

One thing that will undoubtedly rub many fans the wrong way is the structure of Season 5 itself. Netflix is splitting up the eight episodes into three distinct releases. This means those with big theories, months of memes, and excited debates about every small plot point in the previous four seasons will not be able to binge-watch the finale in one marathon weekend. Netflix has announced that Volume 1 will release on November 26, 2025, and Volume 2 on Christmas Day, December 25, 2025. The full series finale will release, appropriately, on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2025.

So Stranger Things fans and foes will have to wait a while to see how the Upside Down comes crashing down, but they also won’t be able to Netflix and chill the finale in one glorious weekend. Instead, the wait between each release is almost guaranteed to fill social media feeds, and it will likely make the events of Season 5 part of the pop culture zeitgeist for months.