Stranger Things Season 5 Begins Production at Netflix

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things has begun production at Netflix.

The show’s official X (formerly Twitter) account shared the long-awaited news with a photo of the reunited ensemble. The post read, “THIS IS A CODE RED. STRANGER THINGS 5 production has officially begun!!!”

The two-part, nine-episode Season 4 concluded with Stranger Things Season 4 Episodes 8 and 9, “Papa / The Piggyback,” in July 2022.

The sci-fi series created by the Duffer Brothers has been on hiatus ever since.

Before those final two episodes that left fans with more questions than answers, including if Sadie Sink’s Max Mayfield will survive, Ross Duffer told TV Line, “I’m sure we will do a time jump. Ideally, we’d have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that.”

That production schedule became more unlikely when production was suspended in May when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for a fair deal. The union’s strike ended in September.

After the WGA strike began, the Duffer Brothers took to the Stranger Things‘ writers X account, writing, “Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins. While we’re excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike.”

“We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then — over and out. #wgastrong,” they added.

Then, SAG-AFTRA also went on strike against the AMPTP for a fair contract in July and ended in November.

Throughout Stranger Things‘ long hiatus, bits of information about the final season and extensions of the show’s universe, like the previously-announced animated series and the Stranger Things: The First Shadow play on the West End, have trickled out.

On Stranger Things Day 2022, we learned that the Season 5 premiere would be titled “Chapter One: The Crawl.” A year later, the show’s social media accounts shared the first few lines of that script.

At Netflix’s Tudum fan event in June 2023, the streaming service announced that Linda Hamilton would join the show’s final season.

Netflix’s TUDUM notes that the returning cast members for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things are Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Cara Buono, Joe Keery, Amybeth McNulty, Charlie Heaton, Brett Gelman, Maya Hawke, Natalia Dyer, and Jamie Campbell Bower.

Other returning cast members include Priah Ferguson, Linda Hamilton, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Ross Duffer, Matt Duffer, Finn Wolfhard, and Sadie Sink.

Stranger Things debuted on Netflix in 2016. The sci-fi series has garnered over 230 nominations and 70 awards worldwide, including Emmys and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

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Stranger Things Seasons 1-4 are streaming on Netflix.

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