Duffer Brothers Pick the Must-Watch Stranger Things Episodes Before Season 5 Drops
Racing to catch up before Stranger Things season 5? The Duffer Brothers point to four essential episodes for a quick, killer rewatch.
Stranger Things finally put the cameras down. After the strikes pushed everything back, season 5 shot straight through 2024 and wrapped in December. Now Netflix has locked the endgame in place, and it is very on-brand: three drops right across the holidays.
Release plan and where we left off
Season 5 is rolling out in three parts at 8pm ET: volume one on November 26, 2025, volume two on Christmas Day, and the series finale on New Year’s Eve. Yes, Netflix is basically throwing Hawkins at your holiday plans.
The Duffers have been hustling to hit that end-of-year window, and they told The Hollywood Reporter they want the final season to bring the show full circle. They also say they do not think new monsters show up in these last episodes. That phrasing is deliciously hedged, but point taken.
'Season two is when we really started to build out the mythology... That is where we started to really plant the seeds.' — Matt Duffer
'Massacre at Hawkins Lab starts unveiling some of the Upside Down mythology... and the stuff with Henry and Eleven continues to resonate throughout season five.' — Ross Duffer
Quick refresher if you cannot rewatch 34 episodes
If you are not in the mood to marathon four seasons, the Duffers pointed to four episodes that set up where we are headed:
- Season 2, Episode 4: 'Will the Wise'
- Season 2, Episode 6: 'The Spy'
- Season 4, Episode 7: 'The Massacre at Hawkins Lab'
- Season 4, Episode 9: 'The Piggyback'
What season 5 is actually about
We are in the fall of 1987. Hawkins is literally torn open by the Rifts. The mission is simple on paper: find and kill Vecna. The problem is he has vanished, and no one knows what he is planning. The town is under military quarantine, the government has turned up the pressure on Eleven again, and she has to go into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance creeps up, that original dread does too. The last battle is coming, the threat is worse than anything so far, and the only way through it is the full party standing together one last time.
Cast, newcomers, and a surprise director
Returning faces include Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Brett Gelman (Murray), Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Amybeth McNulty (Vickie), Nell Fisher (Holly Wheeler), Jake Connelly (Derek Turnbow), Alex Breaux (Lt. Akers), and Linda Hamilton (Dr. Kay).
New to the show this season: Linda Hamilton (The Terminator), Nell Fisher (Evil Dead Rise), newcomer Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux (Joe Pickett) — those last two already have character names, which is a fun little tell that they matter.
Big behind-the-scenes swing: The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont is ending an 11-year directing break to helm an episode of the final season. That is a flex.
A note on the show's roots (and a few extra tidbits)
If you need a vibe check before the end: Stranger Things started as a pulpy love letter to 80s genre movies, set in Hawkins, Indiana, where a missing kid cracked open a whole mess of secret experiments, a portal to a nasty parallel realm, and a bunch of friendships that keep getting stress-tested as the stakes go from small-town weird to world-threatening.
In that THR chat, the Duffers said they want this last run to complete the loop; they addressed fan theories, and they also talked about the animated offshoot Stranger Things: Tales from '85. No spoilers there, just confirmation that the Hawkins-verse keeps expanding even as the flagship wraps.
Who is making it
Stranger Things is produced by Monkey Massacre Productions and 21 Laps Entertainment. The Duffer Brothers created the series and executive produce alongside Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen (21 Laps), Iain Paterson, and Curtis Gwinn.
Production started in early 2024, ran for a full year, and wrapped in December — which is a long shoot even by blockbuster TV standards. Now the finish line is in sight. You rewatching the four the Duffers flagged, or doing a full series run before November 26?