This Season 5 Poster Theory Dooms Two Stranger Things Leads — And Steve Harrington Isn’t One of Them

File this under theories I can’t believe I’m typing: a new Stranger Things poster deep-dive is predicting deaths for two core kids in the final season. Not Steve Harrington. The internet’s current sacrificial lambs are Will Byers and Dustin Henderson. Yes, Dustin. Here’s how we got here.

The poster clue everyone is squinting at

Instagram user @its_ivanmars noticed a pattern in the show’s promo art. Back in a season 4 poster set in the Upside Down, you’ve got Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke), and Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) on bikes. Only Eddie’s bike light was switched on. Eddie, of course, did not make it out of season 4 alive.

Fast-forward to the season 5 poster: the gang is back on bikes, and this time only two headlights are lit - Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo). The theory goes that the lit bikes foreshadow whose number is up.

If that reading holds, the final season could be a lot darker than people expect.

The Squid Game comparison

To bolster the point, the same theorist brings up Squid Game, where the show’s finalists were placed dead-center in key artwork for both season 1 and season 2. The idea isn’t that posters always spoil the plot, but that big shows sometimes hide sly clues in the promo art if you know where to look. It’s a very marketing-nerd way to watch TV, but sometimes this stuff tracks.

So... should we buy it?

It’s a fan theory, not gospel. But it’s a clean pattern: lit bike equals doomed character in S4, now Will and Dustin have the lights in S5. Also notable: Steve, a perennial death rumor magnet, isn’t the target here. If the posters are actually signaling where this is headed, brace yourself.

Fans are already protecting Dustin with their whole hearts

Scrolling the comments under the original Instagram post, the Dustin panic is real. A sampler:

• "Take Will. Not Dustin!" - @littleprecious_1
• "If DUSTIN GOES WE RIDE AT DAWN !!!!!" - @luixirrriedee
• "If DustyBun dies, then the whole show is getting thrown away" - @xdoll_candix
• "Don’t you touch Dustin!" - @pattysflowers67
• "NOT DUSTIN" - @trees0fthevalley
• "Bro I couldn’t take it when Eddie died in Dustin’s arms. I can’t imagine the damage Dustin’s death will only bring to me." - @foomastervic
• "Take will or mike... we want dustin and steave" - @shibin_c_isac
• "Don’t mess with Dustin I can’t live without him" - @la_melika_

When we actually find out

Stranger Things season 5 is the final run, and Netflix is slicing it into three drops: Volume 1 lands November 26, 2025, Volume 2 hits December 25, 2025, and the grand finale - Episode 8 - arrives December 31, 2025. We’ll see if those bike lights were foreshadowing or just vibes.