Everything we know about the final season of 'Stranger Things'

The most expensive Dungeons & Dragons campaign in history is coming to an end.

The end of Netflix's wildly popular series "Stranger Things" is in sight after creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed that season five would be its last. They have said they "planned out the complete story arc" in 2015, and they always knew the show would last four or five seasons.

Fans have been on the edge of their seats ever since season four's cliffhanger ending, which left Max (Sadie Sink) in a coma and teased the Upside Down taking over Hawkins. Viewers should brace for a long wait, but we've still received some intriguing hints about what to expect.

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It's on hold amid the Hollywood strikes

The release date for season five is very much up in the air, as production is currently on hold due to the dual Hollywood actors and writers strikes, and filming has not yet commenced. Writing on the season began in August 2022, though, according to the Duffers, the entire story had already been outlined by that point. It is unlikely any new episodes debut before 2025.

The first episode is titled "The Crawl"

Netflix has revealed the title of the final season's first episode: "The Crawl." Some fans have speculated that this could refer to a dungeon crawl from games like Dungeons & Dragons and possibly hint that the gang will go on an adventure to save Max. In a Netflix aftershow, the Duffers teased that Max being in a coma will be "incredibly relevant" to the fifth season.

Linda Hamilton has joined the cast

Sarah Connor herself, "Terminator" star Linda Hamilton, has been cast in season five in an undisclosed role.

It will likely be shorter than season four

Season four was an unusually jam-packed season where every episode had an epic runtime. But on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, creators Matt and Ross Duffer said they don't expect season five to be as long because there won't be the same amount of build-up at the start, and the story will be largely contained to Hawkins. "I don't know if it's going to be going 100 miles an hour at the start of five, but it's going to be moving pretty fast," Matt Duffer said. "Characters are already going to be in action." Still, Duffer predicted the finale will be "at least" two hours.

There will likely be a time jump

Despite season four's cliffhanger ending, Ross Duffer told TV Line that "I'm sure we will do a time jump" at the start of season five, if only because the young actors will have once again gotten visibly older. "Ideally, we'd have shot [seasons four and five] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that," he noted.

Major deaths are more likely than in the past

Some fans expressed disappointment that none of the major characters died in season four. On "Happy Sad Confused," the Duffers defended themselves, arguing that the show isn't meant to be "depressing" and that killing off a major character requires spending a significant amount of time dealing with the tragic repercussions. But they then teased that deaths are more "on the table" in the final season because "you're headed toward the end, so whatever the repercussions are, they're going into imaginary seasons."

It will have a similar tone as the first season

During a panel, Ross Duffer said that while the final season will be "kind of a culmination of all the seasons," the aim is to "go back to the beginning a little bit, in sort of the tone of" the first season. "Scale-wise," though, it will be more similar to the fourth season, he added. An official Twitter account for the show's writers' room, meanwhile, described season five as "like if season one and four had a baby. And then that baby was injected with steroids."

There are "big reveals" coming about the Upside Down

Though fans learned more about the nature of the Upside Down in the fourth season, there are allegedly more revelations in store. "The big reveals that are coming in season five are really about the Upside Down itself," Ross Duffer told Collider. He also said in a Netflix aftershow that "the answers to what the Upside Down actually is" will be "core" to season five. Finn Wolfhard also told Collider that the final season "answers an insane amount of questions about the lore of 'Stranger Things,' the world-building."

There may not be many new characters

Matt Duffer told IndieWire that "we're doing our best to resist [adding new characters] for" the final season "so we can focus on the OG characters."

An acclaimed director is joining the team

Dan Trachtenberg, the Emmy-nominated filmmaker behind the "Predator" film "Prey" and "10 Cloverfield Lane," will direct an episode of season five.

Will Byers will take "center stage"

Ross Duffer teased to Variety that Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) "really takes center stage again" in the final season. "This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together," he added.

The ending is "moving," according to David Harbour

David Harbour revealed on "Happy Sad Confused" that although he hasn't read a script for the series finale, he knows how the show ends. "It's very, very moving," he teased. Director Shawn Levy similarly told Collider that when the Duffers outlined the final season's storyline, there wasn't "a dry eye in the room."