The fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” will debut in 2025, Netflix announced on Wednesday. To celebrate Nov. 6, 1983, a.k.a. “Stranger Things Day” — the day Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) was abducted into the Upside Down — the streamer also released a video revealing the titles for the final eight episodes, which will conclude the supernatural story of Hawkins, Indiana.
The episode titles are “The Crawl,” “The Vanishing of…,” “The Turnbow Trap,” “Sorcerer,” “Shock Jock,” “Escape From Camazotz,” “The Bridge,” and “The Rightside Up.”
Some of these titles allude to earlier episodes: “The Vanishing of…” — revealed with the name fully obscured — invokes the series premiere “The Vanishing of Will Byers.” Fans online have already speculated that the new abductee could be Holly Wheeler, the younger sister of Mike (Finn Wolfhard) who was reportedly recast with “Evil Dead Rise” actor Nell Fisher, but Netflix has not officially confirmed.
The Season 1 finale was titled “The Upside Down,” the name of the phantasmagoric alternate dimension connected to Hawkins, so it is fitting that the series finale title, “The Rightside Up,” is the reverse. And the penultimate episode title, “The Bridge,” evokes curious titles like Season 4’s “The Piggyback” and Season 2’s “The Gate.”
Other titles seem to introduce new vocabulary into the “Stranger Things” world. “The Turnbow Trap” probably refers to a Hawkins’ business called Turnbow Land Development & Realty; series co-creator Ross Duffer posted an Upside Down-ified billboard for the company on Instagram in March. “Shock Jock,” meanwhile, likely references WSQK, a radio station that appears (again, courtesy of posts from Ross Duffer) to be a part of the season.
Then there’s “Escape From Camazotz,” which is presumably a reference to Madeleine L’Engle’s seminal sci-fi novel “A Wrinkle in Time,” in which the planet of Camazotz is under the unyielding control of nefarious entities known as the Black Thing and IT. What Camazotz refers to in “Stranger Things,” and who could be escaping from it, remain to be seen.
The most delightful detail in the video is arguably the reveal that the season takes place in the fall of 1987, four years after the events of the first season — which debuted eight years ago, in 2016.
UPDATE: The “Stranger Things” social media accounts posted several behind-the-scenes photos from the season that includes stars Wolfhard, Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, David Harbour and Winona Ryder.
Courtesy of Netflix
Courtesy of Netflix
Courtesy of Netflix
Watch the full teaser video here: