For Stranger Things, the final chapter is nearly here. Or is it?
After nearly a decade, Netflix’s signature sci-fi drama will reach its long-awaited end in the coming weeks, bringing its characters back where it all began for a final confrontation with the Upside Down.
But while this may be the end of Hawkins, it isn’t the end of the story. A spin-off is in development, reports Variety – one with new characters and a different era – though the creators have said little about how, or if, it connects to the main series.
But for fans eager to see how the story may continue, the show’s creators – the Duffer Brothers – tell The National that the finale will offer a first glimpse at what comes next.
“There’s one small scene in the finale that gives a hint as to what the spin-off will be,” Ross Duffer says. “We’ll see if people pick up on it.”
Matt cuts in, slightly bewildered: “Why are you giving people that?”
"Well, it'll be fun for them!" says Ross.
Stranger Things 5 will be available in three parts. The first four chapters released in November, followed by another three as Volume 2 yesterday. The final episode, entitled Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up, will show on December 31.
When the spin-off will be released is still anyone's guess, but an announcement may come after the series concludes.
Although the new series is still early in development, the Duffers say it sits at a deliberate distance from the original.
“We’ve had that idea for years, but it has very little to do with this show,” Matt says. “It’s not about Hawkins. It’s not even set in the same decade. It’s got completely different characters. It exists within the same universe, but it doesn’t impact what we’re doing this year.”
Except, of course, for one moment embedded in the finale – the first explicit gesture towards the future of the Stranger Things universe.
But as the flagship series draws to a close, the brothers return to the principle that has guided them from the start.
‘The ending has been our North Star for years’
The Duffers say the final moment of the story has been fixed since early in the show’s life.
“For as long as I can remember, we knew what the final scene was going to be and we always felt confident in that,” Matt says. “It provided us with a North Star. Even as we continue to work on the show and you get fan feedback, we always felt like this was the right end and the inevitable end.”
The conclusion, they stress, is not a reaction to fan theories or online expectations, but the ending they have been moving towards for nearly a decade.
How the Duffers hope fans will react
Stranger Things arrives at its final season with rare levels of anticipation. The brothers acknowledge that fans will bring their own hopes to the ending, but they avoided trying to predict or satisfy every viewpoint.
“I’m hoping it’s universally loved,” Ross says. “Obviously, though, everyone has different expectations and things they want out of it. But the goal isn’t to please everyone. This is just what feels inevitable and right to us.”
They studied many other long-running series as they wrote.
“There are probably more whiffs than there are successes,” he says. “The ones that worked could certainly be bold, but they felt true to themselves. They weren’t just trying to be clever or pull the rug out – – they felt inevitable and right, and that's what we tried to do with this ending."
On deaths, consequences and who may not make it out
Stranger Things has always treated character deaths as emotional turning points rather than shocks. As the story reaches its end, the Duffers say any loss must have real impact.
“You want to make sure that the stakes feel very high, and they certainly are as high as they’ve ever been this season,” Ross says. “You want to make the danger feel very real. And to do that, yes, sometimes you have to hurt people.”
But any death must still feel earned.
“When we do a death, the impact has to make sense narratively, because we can’t just brush it off, and you want to make sure that it’s going to resonate.”
Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn)’s death still shapes the new episodes.
“Eddie died at the end of last season, and his death resonates all the way through the entirety of this season,” Ross says. “So when you’re going into the finale, we don’t have another season to deal with this. So if – when and if – we do kill people, it has to make sense narratively, and it has to resonate in the right way for our characters this year.”
Cast’s emotional final days on set
If season five feels more emotional, the Duffers say it’s because the story’s ending and the cast’s real lives aligned. They structured the production so each actor filmed their final scene on their final day, allowing genuine emotion to shape the finale.
“We were able to organise the schedule in such a way that everybody’s final day on set, they were shooting their final scene,” Matt says. “Each of those days was extremely emotional.”
The result, he adds, can be seen on screen.
“The way the cast was feeling in real life carried into the scene. The scenes themselves, I think, are some of the most emotional – if not the most emotional – scenes we’ve ever filmed.”
The identity of the final actor on set remains a secret – “because it could be revealing”, Matt says – but the brothers describe the final days of filming as a moment where the real and fictional endings converged.
It is, Ross says, exactly how the series was meant to end.
“This is what feels right to us. If fans feel that too, then we’ve done our job.”
Stranger Things 5's final episode releases December 31 on Netflix
