*SPOILER ALERT!! Do not read if you have not seen the first installment of the new series!
The Duffer Brothers, creators of Stranger Things, have done it again. After three long years of anticipation, fans were finally rewarded when Netflix released Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 on November 26, 2025, marking the beginning of the series’ highly awaited finale chapter. This new season comes with eight episodes, but Netflix is dropped at different times. Volume 1, which was episodes 1-4, was just dropped, and it will be followed on Christmas as a present to the fans with episodes 5-7. Which leads to the finale episode and finally of the show ringing in the New Year’s with episode eight being dropped on December 31, 2025.
In this new season, the show starts right off the bat with a flashback to the Upside Down when Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) was first taken by Vecna. In this Flashback, Will is running from a demogorgon and is eventually taken and brought back to Vecna’s home. Where Vecna starts to use him as a vessel to link him to Will and use him as a spy from episode 1, season 5. This plan eventually backfires when Will finds out how to use that link, and now Will can tap into the hive mind and sense when monsters are coming. Taking all this information that has come from every season leading up to season five. This season can be understood as Will is going to be playing a huge character role this season because the show started with Will, and it has to end with him. Noah Schnapp even said, according to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, that when he was reading the script for season five, Schnapp was “in shock and beyond grateful to the Duffer brothers for this opportunity”.
This new and exciting season of Stranger Things is not only packed with epic battles and adventurous journeys but also introduces several new characters. According to the Netflix show Stranger Things and the Netflix official website, with Keisha Hatchett as the writer, one of the new characters is Derek Turnbow, otherwise known as “Delightful Derek,” played by Jake Connelly. Derek, according to Kelisha Hattchett of Tudum of Netflix, is a “Charming and Hilarious” classmate of Holly Wheeler, played by Nell Fisher, who appears to be one of the main targets this season. As Vecna’s sinister plan unfolds using the children of Hawkins as links between worlds, Derek and the rest of the Turnbow family are drawn into the story, adding both comic relief and new dynamics to the group’s struggle against the dark forces at play. (Netflix, 2025). Many Stranger Things fans have already started making prediction videos of how the show will continue in volume two, with how volume one left off. Popular YouTuber, Film Stocked, in his most recent video called Stranger Things season 5 volume 2 trailer reaction, he is watching and reacting to the volume 2 trailer, where he begins to explain everything that is shown in this trailer, including his predictions that Steve and Dustin are going to die this season. All predictions can be found on YouTube, as well as the actual show can be found on Netflix, so stay tuned for volume two!
