‘Stranger Things 5’ Final Trailer Released: Eleven Gears Up for Epic Final Battle Against Venca
Netflix has released the trailer for the finale of Stranger Things 5, which will be available in theaters and on the streaming platform on December 31. The last episode, titled “The Rightside Up,” is the eighth and final installment of the show’s fifth season.
Earlier this season, Netflix released the first four episodes on Thanksgiving as Volume 1 and followed with three more episodes on Christmas as Volume 2. Volume 2 ended with Episode 7, where Max, played by Sadie Sink, wakes up and reveals the villain Vecna’s plan to merge the human world with a parallel dimension called the Abyss.
The group comes up with a plan to enter the Abyss, save Vecna’s kidnapped children, and destroy the dimension with a bomb. The episode closes with Vecna, disguised as Henry Creel, using his brainwashed victims in a chilling ritual as they are transported to the Abyss.
One last trailer.
— Netflix (@netflix) December 30, 2025
The final episode of STRANGER THINGS premieres TOMORROW at 8PM ET | 5PM PT. pic.twitter.com/cb3bJEqKFs
Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of Stranger Things, first brought the show to Netflix in July 2016. The series quickly became a hit, with Seasons 2 and 3 following in 2017 and 2019. Season 4 was released in two parts in May and July of 2022, similar to this season. The show has also expanded beyond television, including a stage play, Stranger Things: First Shadow, which premiered in London in 2023 and is now on Broadway.
In a recent interview with Variety, the Duffers talked about Eleven’s story in the finale. “There is the supernatural threat, which is represented by Vecna this season. But the military has always posed a threat, from Season 1 on. Even when Brenner is gone, he gets continually replaced by someone else. In this case, in Season 5, by Kay,” said Ross Duffer.
He added, “So we needed Kali to represent maybe a more pessimistic, but perhaps realistic, version, compared to Mike’s worldview of we’re gonna have butterflies and rainbows. And Kali’s going, ‘How is this going to work? And what is the solution here, that you can live a normal life?’ That’s really a huge part of Eleven’s journey this season.”
The final episode is over two hours long and will be the first time the franchise hits the big screen, showing in more than 500 theaters across the U.S. and Canada.
Screenings start on New Year’s Eve at 5 p.m. PT, at the same time the episode goes live on Netflix. According to Ross Duffer, around 1.1 million people have RSVP’d to see the finale in theaters, and 3,500 showings in over 620 locations are already sold out.
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