Stranger Things Season 5 Splits Into Three Parts — The Volume One Mega-Movie Will Win You Over
Stranger Things season 5 will feature the most challenging episode of the Duffer brothers’ careers — their boldest, most ambitious chapter yet.
Netflix is closing the book on Stranger Things with a final season spread across three drops in two months. That sounds messy, but here’s the twist: the Duffers built it that way on purpose, and they say it actually lets them go bigger this time.
Planned split, bigger swing
Ross Duffer told SFX Magazine that, unlike season 4’s last-minute split (thanks, pandemic), season 5 was designed from the jump to be released in chunks. Creatively, they structured it as two halves. Marketing-wise, you’ll see three dates. That’s not a contradiction so much as Netflix being Netflix.
"Volume One really exists as its own mega-movie. It has its own climax."
That climax is the fourth episode, which caps Volume One. Ross calls that episode the toughest thing they’ve ever pulled off technically. He also says the series finale itself wasn’t the hardest to make in terms of logistics — but it was the most draining emotionally. He admits he cried a lot working on it, and he’s not the cry-at-work type unless Pixar is involved.
When you can watch
If you want to map this out — because of course you do — here’s how the rollout lands:
- Volume One: November 26 (ends with episode 4, the Volume One finale)
- Volume Two: Christmas Day
- Series finale: New Year’s Eve
Yes, Dustin misses appointment TV too
Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) is into the staggered plan. He thinks stretching the conversation over multiple dates brings back some of that weekly-show energy — the debates, the group texts, the watch nights — that streaming mostly erased. He’s not wrong; the show that basically invented the binge is now trying to recreate water-cooler buzz.
The last ride hits theaters (briefly)
One more curveball: multiple outlets report the two-hour finale will screen in select theaters on December 30, one day before it hits Netflix. So if you want to see how Hawkins’ saga ends on the biggest screen you can find, you might get your shot. The Duffers have said they’ve known the ending — the actual final scenes — for years. Soon we’ll find out what they’ve been holding onto in the Upside Down.