Stranger Things Cast Finally Reveal Which Co-Star Teared Up During That Emotional Finale Scene
With Season 5 set to close the gate on Netflix’s 2016 phenomenon, Sadie Sink, Finn Wolfhard and their costars open up about the finale — and who couldn’t hold back tears.
Stranger Things is heading into its final round, and yes, the kids who started this whole thing in 2016 are feeling it. A few of them just talked through their first reactions to the Season 5 finale script, and it sounds like the emotions sneaked up on them just as hard as the Demogorgon did back in the day.
So... did they cry?
Short answer: absolutely. Sadie Sink, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, and Caleb McLaughlin sat down with Collider and opened up about reading the last episode. Sink said she didn’t expect to get so swept up, but it hit fast and hard. Wolfhard went in determined to stay dry-eyed and failed in record time. One line triggered him mid-read, he started to choke up, and then Matarazzo reached over and grabbed his shoulder — and that was that.
"It was like dominoes."
Wolfhard says Caleb tried to hold the line at first — very composed, very stoic — but once they actually got on set to shoot, the floodgates opened for everybody. These are people who have literally grown up together playing these characters, so the reaction tracks. For anyone doing the math, Wolfhard is 22 now (and, yes, recently fronted Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), which tells you how long this crew has been at it.
What they’re closing the book on
This final season wraps the story that kicked off in 2016, the one that turned bike rides, Dungeons & Dragons, and synths into mass-market nostalgia again. The Duffer Brothers created the series for Netflix, and Season 5 is the end of the line.
Netflix’s release plan is a little... unique
Netflix is spreading out the goodbye in a way that’s not quite the usual two-volume dump. It’s basically a three-stop rollout, capped by a finale with its own date — which feels like a deliberate curtain call.
- Season 5 Volume 1: November 26, 2025
- Season 5 Volume 2: December 25, 2025
- Series finale: December 31, 2025
So, Volume 2 on Christmas, then a New Year’s Eve mic drop six days later. Not subtle, but probably effective.
Big picture
If you’ve been watching since the beginning, none of this should surprise you. This cast has spent close to a decade in Hawkins. Of course the final script cracked them. The only real shocker is that we’re getting a separate date just for the finale — which tells you Netflix knows exactly what kind of event it has on its hands.