Stranger Things Season 5 Finale Will Hit Theaters After All
New Year’s Eve, sorted — the city’s big night out is locked in and ready to light up the countdown.
Stranger Things might be ending the year with fireworks: the season 5 finale now looks headed to movie theaters on New Year's Eve, the same day it drops on Netflix. Yes, after all the hedging, that seems to be the plan.
Wait, didn't Netflix say no theaters?
They did. Just days ago, Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria told Variety the finale would not hit theaters, even though the episode reportedly runs close to feature-length at almost two hours. Her line at the time: releasing it on Netflix is what fans want.
So what changed?
Puck's What I'm Hearing newsletter (published October 20) now reports the two-hour series capper will debut in AMC and other theater chains on December 31, day-and-date with Netflix. According to Puck, that big Variety interview — which also featured creators Matt and Ross Duffer — was conducted weeks ago, and the situation has evolved since then. Translation: more conversations happened, and the theatrical plan came back to life.
Matt Duffer made the big-screen case pretty bluntly: "People don't get to experience how much time and effort is spent on sound and picture, and they're seeing it at reduced quality. More than that, it's about experiencing it at the same time with fans."
Is this official?
Not yet. Netflix hasn't confirmed the theatrical rollout. But it tracks with the streamer flirting more with theaters this year — think titles like KPop Demon Hunters and Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein getting big-screen play — and TV finales popping up in cinemas elsewhere. Earlier this year, the last episode of Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor Who season 2 was also shown theatrically.
Where can you see it?
For now, Puck points to AMC and other U.S. chains. It's unclear if this expands worldwide or stays a domestic-only thing. We're in wait-and-see mode on that.
The road to the end
- Season 5, Volume 1 hits Netflix on November 26
- Volume 2 lands December 25
- The finale — reportedly around two hours — arrives December 31 on Netflix and, per Puck, in U.S. theaters the same day
It's a strange twist for Stranger Things, sure, but it makes sense: if you're going to engineer a massive, loud, emotional goodbye, giving fans the option to experience it with a crowd on a huge screen isn't the worst idea.