‘Stranger Things’ creator teases “emotional, thrilling” fifth season: “The goal is to hit hard”

Stranger Things fans are set for an emotional rollercoaster in the show’s upcoming fifth and final season, if comments from co-creator Ross Duffer are anything to go by.

• Read More: Here’s what we know about ‘Stranger Things’ season five

There’s no release date for the new season yet, though it’s previously been confirmed for this year. In January, Ross and his brother Matt confirmed that post-production was underway and that work on the show’s visual effects was “ahead of schedule” (via Variety).

The fourth season was released in two parts in 2022, with the first seven episodes coming on May 27 and the final two arriving on July 1.

During the Broadway opening for Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Ross told The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s the end of a long journey, for everyone who made the show and also for those characters.

“It is thrilling and it’s our fastest start we’ve ever had — our heroes are in action right away, but I think ultimately, hopefully, it’s our most emotional season yet. Those final episodes, the goal is that they hit pretty hard because in a lot of ways it’s about the end of this journey we’ve all had and also the end of childhood.”

Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers in the series, said at the same time that fans would be left “devastated” by the new episodes, but added: “As sad as it was, I’m so excited to see the world’s reaction to watching the finale because there’s not going to be a dry eye, it’s going to be sad. Not to be so negative, it is a really great season and people will love it.”

There’s set to be a small time jump into season five, which Netflix confirmed will take part in the autumn of 1987, about 18 months after the events of season four. It’s set to take place entirely in Hawkins, too, a departure from the settings of California and Russia from the previous season.

In the previous season’s finale, Byers tells Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) that Vecna, the show’s main antagonist, is “hurting” but still alive, and says that the group need to kill him. Alongside Schnapp and Wolfhard, main cast members including Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton and Maya Hawke are all set to return.

In a four-star review of Stranger Things season four part one, NME wrote: “While there are some gripes to be had with the penultimate season of the show, it still packs in all the terrifying thrills you’d expect, deftly blending horror and sci-fi to maximum effect while still allowing for some laughs among the bleakness. It’s a finely-tuned formula that’s given us yet another sublime season and, hopefully, one more to come.”

And while the show might be coming to an end soon, the title of Netflix’s animated spin-off series was revealed earlier this week. Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 is its name, and it’s currently in the works.

The Duffer Brothers told Netflix’s Tudum: “We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realised has been absolutely thrilling.”

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