Stranger Things Season 5 Promises Chilling Vecna Showdown

Netflix has released a brand-new extended teaser for Season 5 of Stranger Things, the final season of the hit series from the Duffer Brothers that’s due to arrive on the streaming service late this year.

The full-length Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser (available to view below) opens with as much promise as fans could hope for. The Upside Down keeps seeping into Hawkins in new and disturbing ways. Demo-dogs prowl Hawkins’ lab and back alleys. Action rages as flames lash across the screen, a welcome return to the series’ beloved flamethrower sequences. It’s all good fun, but the real star of the show is the arrival of Linda Hamilton, armed, loaded, and battle-ready to join the ranks of Hawkins’ core team.

Season 4 ended on a huge cliffhanger, with Vecna ripping open a huge new gate and allowing the Upside Down to flood fully into Hawkins. Season 5, by the looks of the Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser, will also begin by skipping ahead in time. (The Stranger Things season finale came with a huge time jump between the main finale and a post-credits scene.) The fifth season of Stranger Things will open in the fall of 1987, which also coincides with the third anniversary of Will Byers’ initial disappearance at the end of Season 1.

Season 5 will consist of eight episodes, but don’t let the 8-Pack lull you into thinking this is a typical Stranger Things season. Season 5 episodes are described as “feature length”, so Netflix is essentially promising eight Stranger Things movies to end this wildly successful series.

The official description for the final season sets the table for an explosive showdown. Hawkins has been irrevocably changed by the Rifts, and every hero, both old and new, has a single new goal: find and kill Vecna. No one knows where he is or what he might do next. To make matters worse, the U.S. government has put Hawkins under military quarantine and stepped up its manhunt for Eleven, driving her to go on the run for the first time since Season 1. Hawkins is being swallowed by an all-consuming sense of dread as the anniversary of Will’s disappearance looms. The Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser hints that after the Season 5 setup, it’s time for the final battle. The Upside Down is darker and deadlier than ever. The final battle will need the full party: everyone. It’s now or never.

Who’s Returning for Season 5?

Fans of Stranger Things are getting another chance to say goodbye to the Hawkins crew as the entire main cast is returning for the final season.

Amybeth McNulty and Gabriella Pizzolo also return in their roles as Vicki and Suzie, Dustin’s childhood love interests. Vecna, Jamie Campbell Bower, is also expected to return for Season 5, though it’s not yet known if Bower will return to play Vecna or if they will instead return as his origin villain, Tim.

The addition of Linda Hamilton has been announced, but there’s no official word on who she will play in Season 5. Fans, however, have already speculated, with the casting for Hamilton being confirmed as Dr. Kay, and given a strong lead for what Hamilton’s Hawkins might look like, as the cast reunion has shown Hamilton training the Hawkins children in some new, very weird procedures. Other new additions to the Season 5 cast include Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers.

Expect a large crowd scene to accompany the main characters in Season 5. Given the sprawling scope of the battle teased in the latest trailer, Stranger Things Season 5 will almost certainly need the full Stranger Things orchestra to do the Upside Down proper justice.

Six Moments From the Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser Trailer

One of the most notable scenes from the Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser trailer is a brief sequence featuring Lucas attempting to hide from the demo-dogs. Lucas is joined by his friends as they stand, crouched on the ground in terror behind a makeshift barrier. One particular member of the group is stark naked and visibly trembling. The entire sequence, from the setting in a partially furnished house to the frantic angle of Lucas on the ground, strongly evokes one of the most famous scenes from another Steven Spielberg-directed movie franchise: the velociraptor-chase scene from Jurassic Park, in which the brachiosaurus is hacked to pieces in the kitchen.

The Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser also has a healthy helping of body horror, which was the strong suit of Season 4 (if we ignore Vecna’s nasty face melt during the finale, that is). Hearing Vecna’s crazed visage whispering “found you” sends the perfect shiver of psychopathic dread down the spine.

The Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser also hits on some more heavy emotional moments, particularly for the memory of Eddie Munson. Munson’s gravestone is seen covered in dirt and tagged with the words “Burn in hell” by some unidentified perpetrator. As the Season 4 finale tag demonstrates, Eddie was seen as the sacrificial lamb by Hawkins as Vecna turned out to be an unexpected avatar of the Upside Down, but he was at least publicly declared as the hero by the school at the end. His death in the Season 4 finale was a genuinely devastating blow for both the cast of Stranger Things and for fans. Eddie’s death in Season 4 was the single most tragic moment in the show since the death of Bob Newby in Season 2. The Stranger Things Season 5 Teaser signals a long-overdue course correction for Hawkins citizens, but the damage has already been done.