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20th November 2025
01:31pm GMT
Clear your calendars, as the first episode of Stranger Things season five will drop in a week from today, and we've asked the cast to summarise the season in one word.
Stranger Things fans are in full anticipation of the sixth and final season of the beloved series as its release date approaches.
Season five, which will come out three and a half years after season four, will be released in multiple batches.
Fans have already received a little taster as the first five minutes of the first episode have been revealed.
The five-minute sequence takes viewers back to the very beginning of the series to show what happened to Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) when he disappeared all those years ago.
Some actors have also given some sneak peeks into the new season, with Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin Henderson, telling RadioTimes.com about how fan favourite Eddie Munson's (Joseph Quinn) impact will still be felt throughout season five, and Joe Keery revealing a big rivalry between Steve and Jonathan for season five.
JOE's Beth Robinson sat down with Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) and asked each of them to sum up the final season in one word... tough.
Finn started us off with summarising season five as "bittersweet with a hyphen", with Caleb immediately following him up with "grand", while Gaten "sticks with monumental".
Jamie Campbell Bower, who portrays Vecna, dubs the season "explosive".
When asked if the actors were happy with how their characters' storylines ended, Finn said he was very happy with the ending, even admitting to crying several times.
Gaten then confessed he was very nervous going into filming, with creators Matt and Ross Duffer also warning him before the table reads started that "there's a bit of a different thing going on, just so you're aware," with Gaten adding that he was grateful for the heads-up.
Stranger Things season five will be released in three parts, with Volume 1 releasing on 26 November, Volume 2 on 25 December, and the finale on 31 December.
The release schedule will be as follows, as reported by The RadioTimes:
Chapter One: The Crawl - 26th November
Chapter Two: The Vanishing of... - 26th November
Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap - 26th November
Chapter Four: Sorcerer - 26th November
Chapter Five: Shock Jock - 25th December
Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz - 25th December
Chapter Seven: The Bridge - 25th December
Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up - 31st December
Some of you might have noticed that Chapter Two's title isn't yet complete. Fans are convinced it will be The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler, after the youngest member of Mike's family was recast for season five, indicating that she'll play a bigger role this upcoming season.
Fans have been on the edge of their seat to find out the runtimes for season five and understandably so as season 4's episodes ranged from just over an hour to two and a half hours.
The Duffer Brothers have since revealed the runtimes for volume 1.
The runtimes for volume 2 as well as the finale haven't been released yet.
Here's what's been released so far:
Chapter One: The Crawl - 1 hour and 8 minutes
Chapter Two: The Vanishing of... - 54 minutes
Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap - 1 hour and 6 minutes
Chapter Four: Sorcerer - 1 hour and 23 minutes
Chapter Five: Shock Jock - TBC
Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz - TBC
Chapter Seven: The Bridge - TBC
Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up - about two hours
Typically, all Netflix releases arrive at 8am UK time, however Stranger Things season five will make an exception to this rule, as episodes will drop at 1am GMT.
Netflix has also released a list of when the episodes will be available to watch depending on which country you're in.
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