Being a writer is a hard job. It deserves respect. If we respect each other, we can cultivate a kinder, more inclusive, more collaborative environment for everyone that’d be nice.”

With a year of filming planned and potentially not starting until the end of Summer or even into the Fall, any hope of a 2024 release date is over; we now expect Stranger Things season 5 to be released on Netflix sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2025 at the absolute earliest. Teasing what else fans can expect, Matt Duffer told TVLine that season 5 will likely feature a time jump, before revealing (via the Happy Sad Confused podcast) it'll get right into the action from its first episode. That's before a tense and captivating final few episodes, which he describes as being Lord of the Rings-esque in tone. With a delay in the start of production with Stranger Things season 5, any hope of seeing the series return in 2024 is likely zero.Untitled Stranger Things Live-Action Series – Spin-off series based on an original idea by The Duffer Brothers, with Upside Down and 21 Laps producing. Stranger Things VR – The video game VR project from Tender Claws will be released in November 2023. This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together. Will is used to being the young one, the introverted one, the one that’s being protected. So part of his journey, it’s not just sexuality — it’s Will coming into his own as a young man.” What will happen to the gates? Script work began in August 2022, with the first episode's title unveiled in late November. It's called 'The Crawl', and we have four big theories on what Stranger Things 5's first episode title could mean. Meanwhile, co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer plan to make the final season's episodes shorter than those in its predecessor. Additionally, Doctor Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) was left handcuffed to a pipe in the subterranean Nina Project, while Vecna (Jamie Campbell-Bower) disappeared after being severely injured by Nancy, Steve, and Robin. Both are nailed on return, in our opinion – they're too important not to – but Netflix hasn't confirmed they're part of proceedings yet.

The cast for Stranger Things has swelled in recent years, and expect a big ensemble cast for the final season. Finally, as to what we can expect, the Stranger Things writing staff gave us a clue when they Tweeted: An encounter with the Upside Down evolves into a grand adventure for video game-loving twin brothers living on the outskirts of 1980s Tokyo.” As for potential character deaths, we think Eleven and Mike will survive. However, Finn Wolfhard said he'd be open to Mike dying under one condition (via GQ). Hopper, Joyce, and Will have all been through a lot (much like Eleven), so we suspect they'll make it out alive. Everyone else, though, is fair game as far as we're concerned. Stranger Things season 5 is going to be the deadliest yet, which implies some main characters will bite the dust. I don’t think that people would connect with a character like Eddie or others in the Stranger Things universe without compassionate, intelligent, quality writing.The reason we haven't done anything is just because you don't want to be doing it for the wrong reasons, and it was just like, 'Is this something I would want to make regardless of it being related to Stranger Things or not?' And definitely,” said Matt. "Even if we took the Stranger Things title off of it, I'm so, so excited about it. But it is not… it's going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix." But apparently, Finn Wolfhard took one guess at what the spinoff series was about and got it right. "Finn Wolfhard, he wasn't spitballing, he just went, 'I think this would be a cool spin-off,'" Ross shared with Variety. "And we were like, 'How in the world…?'" Elsewhere, Vecna was severely injured by Nancy, Steve, and Robin at Creel House. When the trio try to find Vecna's body, though, it's gone, with the series' primary villain crawling off to recover from his defeat. In a Variety piece in August 2023, the Duffers told the trade magazine that Will will take “center stage again in [season] 5”, adding: Sadly, for the people of Hawkins, those unable to get out of the town before a quarantine starts may have to fend for themselves while the military wage war against the forces of the Upside Down. Will takes a central role in Season 5

Alongside the announcement of The Duffer Brothers re-upping their Netflix deal, we also got word they’re working on multiple spin-offs – some of which we’ve got more information on. Brown claims she doesn't actually want Eleven to die, despite initially joking that she'd like it to happen. Maya Hawke, who plays Robin, told NME she'd "love to die and get my hero’s moment". Natalie Dyer hopes Nancy will live to tell the tale, though (via Cosmopolitan).As for Max, she's in a medically-induced coma following her near-fatal encounter with Vecna in Stranger Things season 4's finale. When Eleven went looking for Max's consciousness/soul/whatever you want to call it in the Void, she couldn't find her either, so nobody knows if Max will recover. Schnapp also told US magazine that Will is the "center point" of Stranger Things 5, before telling Forbes that season 5 will "end with Will". Based on the tweet above, which teases season 5's very first scene, it's likely to begin with a de-aged Will, too. There isn't a total count of episodes yet, but while appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Matt Duffer revealed that season 5 will be regular-sized, not super-sized like season 4 (which had a total runtime of nearly 13 hours). “The only reason we don’t expect [it] to be as long is, this season, if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery," Matt said. "You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they’re struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve’s trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in Season 5]."

The biggest casting news, outside of those returning from season 4, is a major Terminator star has joined the Stranger Things 5 ranks. Linda Hamilton, who's synonymous with the sci-fi franchise for her role as Sarah Connors, is involved, but there's no word on who she will play. It's going to be unlike any other season," Matt Duffer suggested. "We're starting season 5 and things are already going. In the way Max was impacted by [season] three and how that impacted her narrative in four, Dustin has been impacted a lot by the death of Eddie, so that's going to impact his storyline in five. We're going to see a side of him we've not seen before. It's also going to be like season one on steroids." Ross Duffer corroborated Schnapp's comments in a chat with Variety, adding: "Will really takes center stage again. This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together. Will is used to being the young one, the introverted one, the one that’s being protected. So part of his journey, it’s not just sexuality – it’s Will coming into his own as a young man." Stranger Things Comics – Currently announced projects include Tales from Hawkins and The Many Ghosts of Dr. Brenner.In December 2022, we got word about one of the new spin-offs, described as an anime series set in Tokyo during the 1980s. The logline we have for the new anime series, which hasn’t been officially confirmed, is as follows: The Duffer Brothers have also revealed that they would like to hand the spinoff to someone new. “The idea, ultimately, is to pass the baton to someone else, someone who’s hopefully really talented and passionate,” Matt added while on Happy Sad Confused. “Even the idea of Ross and I, say, doing a pilot and leaving it, it just feels silly to me. You really need to be there from the beginning to end. I think we need to find a partner to help us with that.”