Do you hear the opening notes of “Running Up That Hill” playing in the distance like drums in the deep? That’s because the final season of Stranger Things is almost upon us, looming larger every day. If you’re sick to death of Hawkins after almost a decade of its never ending, monster-based shenanigans, you may still have time to cancel your Netflix account, flee the country, turn off your internet, or do whatever you need to do to survive the oncoming storm. If you’re hearing “Chrissy, Wake Up” instead of Kate Bush, it’s definitely too late for you and you might as well give in and join the Hellfire Club now.
Wherever you stand on the Netflix phenomenon as it finally heads into its long-awaited endgame, the rollout will be pretty hard to ignore over the next couple months. It kicked up a notch on Monday, with a short behind-the-scenes teaser created “halfway through filming,” according to a voiceover from Lucas actor, Caleb McLaughlin.
Don’t get your hopes up for a big reveal, unfortunately. The clip is more concerned with reintroducing fans to familiar parts of the Stranger Things universe (i.e. Max’s blue sweatshirt, some really gnarly bloody vines, etc.) than infusing anything new. Each major cast member also gets a short sound-bite to talk about how excited they are for the upcoming finale. “Season four was big, season five definitely feels bigger,” says Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays season four‘s big bad, Vecna. “We’re just kind of savoring every single moment,” adds Sadie Sink.
What does feel refreshing about the teaser is the sense of finality to it all. “I started when I was 10… I’m now turning 20 years old,” Millie Bobby Brown shares. For a cast that has expressed their desire to move on after dedicating almost their entire childhoods to this project, not to mention an era of television where nothing seems to properly end at all, a series being gifted an actual conclusion feels almost as topsy-turvy as the Upside Down itself. We’ll see what the Duffer brothers have in store when the season premieres some time in 2025.