Stranger Things Season 5 Brings Back a Fan Favorite With a Sinister Twist
A fan-favorite is set to make a shadowy comeback in Stranger Things Season 5, the show’s final chapter—and their return comes with a sinister twist. As the Duffer Brothers steer the Netflix phenomenon to its endgame, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, and the Hawkins crew face their darkest hour.
Stranger Things is wrapping up with Season 5, and yes, a fan favorite is making a comeback. Kind of. Not in the warm, tearful reunion way. More in the 'oh wow, that is a corpse' way.
Time Magazine got a look at the set in Atlanta and basically stumbled over Barb. As in: a very realistic Barb body. She is half-buried, tangled up in black vines (which, charmingly, are partly spray-painted pool noodles), lips purple, and a nasty, bleeding gash across her neck. So at minimum, Barb is physically back on screen in Season 5. Whether that means flashback, nightmare, Upside Down vision, or something else, the show is clearly not done with her.
Quick rewind in case you somehow avoided the discourse: Nancy’s best friend Barb, played by Shannon Purser, was yanked into the Upside Down in Season 1. Will got rescued. Barb didn’t. Her blink-and-you-miss-it death ignited the internet, spinning up #JusticeForBarb and #ImWithBarb and turning a minor character into a myth. The Duffers have said even they were caught off guard by how intense that reaction was. Netflix kept pushing them on it, and in hindsight, the brothers admit the streamer had a point.
'We neglected her, and as such, Hawkins neglected her, and it made her that much more famous,' Ross Duffer said.
If you like the show’s creepier side, this is all very on-brand. Also very Stranger Things: the DIY horror aesthetic that somehow makes the Upside Down feel grosser because you can imagine the art department spray-painting those pool noodles.
Season 5 is the end of the line for the Duffer Brothers’ series, with the core cast back: Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, David Harbour as Jim Hopper, Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven (aka Jane Hopper), and Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler. And now, apparently, Barb’s body as a grim reminder of where this all started.
Netflix is carving the final season into three drops. Mark your calendar:
- Part 1: November 26, 2025
- Part 2: December 25, 2025
- Part 3: December 31, 2025
So yes, Barb is back — just not the way anyone hoped. Consider it a dark little full-circle moment before the lights go out in Hawkins for good.