Did Mike's Speech Secretly Reveal the Final Battle in Stranger Things Season 5?

Stranger Things is back in theory mode, and the latest fan hunch is a fun one: the Season 5 premiere might have quietly told us how the whole saga ends. Meanwhile, Finn Wolfhard is out here trying to calm everyone down about the finale. So let’s break the tea leaves and the reassurances.

The Season 5 clue that has fans connecting dots

In the Season 5 premiere, titled 'The Crawl', there’s a quick scene where Mike shows his little sister Holly a figurine he calls 'Mike the Brave'. He tells her this guy goes on dungeon crawls battling 'monsters, evil wizards, and sorcerers'. On its face, cute sibling moment. But fans think that line-up is not random and might mirror the endgame: monsters as Demogorgons, the evil wizard as Vecna, and the sorcerer role pointing at Will. Yes, Will.

The Will part comes from a Reddit theory that ties into Episode 4: Will links into the hive and kills three Demogorgons, then wipes his nose in the opposite direction of Eleven’s usual post-power nose wipe. It’s a tiny, nerdy visual cue, but the idea is that Will is El’s mirror image. Push that to its extreme and you get a finale where those two end up in direct conflict, with Will facing down the rest of the group just like Mike’s figurine setup foreshadowed.

• Premiere title: 'The Crawl'
• Mike tells Holly about 'Mike the Brave' fighting 'monsters, evil wizards, and sorcerers'
• Fan mapping: Demogorgons = monsters, Vecna = evil wizard, Will = sorcerer
• Episode 4: Will taps the hive, kills three Demogorgons
• Visual hint: Will wipes his nose opposite of Eleven, implying he’s her opposite
• Endgame theory: Will vs. Eleven, with Will confronting the rest of the gang

Is that exactly where the Duffers are heading? We’ll see. But as far as textual breadcrumbs go, it’s a pretty tidy string.

Finn Wolfhard on the finale: worried at first, now confident

Finn Wolfhard (Mike) told Time Magazine he was nervous about how the show would land, mostly because none of us have forgotten how the Game of Thrones finale went. Then he read the scripts. His words: the cast knew it was 'something special'. He also teased that his favorite moment in the finale nails the core dynamic of the main group and ties directly into what the series has been about all along.

"I think everyone was pretty worried, honestly - The way that Game of Thrones got torn to shreds in that final season, we’re all walking into this going, 'We hope to not have that kind of thing happen.'"

He says Stranger Things is not walking into the same trap. If you’ve been around long enough, you know I’m wary of finale promises, but I do buy that the show knows its characters better than most long-runners.

His final day on set hit hard

Talking to Backstage, Wolfhard said he couldn’t even label how he felt on his last day. A couple days later, it sank in and it wrecked him: 'That was the saddest thing ever,' he said, adding, 'I don't know if I will ever get over that.' With a little distance, though, he’s landed on gratitude, calling the whole run one of the best experiences of his life. He’s been Mike Wheeler since the 2016 pilot, and outside Hawkins you’ve seen him in It and the Ghostbusters movies.

When do we actually get the ending?

Stranger Things is on Netflix, with Season 5 continuing later this year. For the calendar watchers: Season 5 Volume 2 is currently set for December 25, 2025, and the series finale is slated to land December 31, 2025. A one-two holiday punch feels on-brand for this show.

So: are we really building to Will vs. Eleven, with Demogorgons and Vecna as the other bosses on the final crawl? Or are the Duffers baiting us with a neat little misdirect? Drop your best finale theories below.