Stranger Issues is wrapping up its run on Netflix with a fifth and ultimate season unfold throughout three totally different drops — however not each forged member is returning.
The hit collection, which debuted in 2016, focuses on a fictional city the place a collection of supernatural occasions happen and trigger thriller and mayhem. Over the course of 5 seasons, Stranger Issues has catapulted its forged members — Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery — to stardom.
Forward of the present's highly-anticipated season 4 premiere in 2022, creators Matt and Ross Duffer introduced that they have been going to finish the collection after another chapter in Hawkins, Indiana.
“Seven years in the past, we deliberate out the entire story arc for Stranger Issues,” they detailed in an open letter in February 2022. “On the time, we predicted the story would final 4 to 5 seasons. It proved too giant to inform in 4 however — as you'll see for yourselves — we at the moment are hurtling towards our finale. Season 4 would be the penultimate season; season 5 would be the final.”
Later that yr, the Duffer Brothers opened up about their imaginative and prescient for the ultimate episodes and addressed the season 4 episode cut up.
“The unique plan was to launch it abruptly once more. However as we started turning over episodes, everybody started to really feel the season was too massive to be launched in a single batch — at practically 13 hours, it's actually extra two seasons than one,” they advised Selection in Could 2022 after Quantity 1 dropped the primary seven episodes. “Episode 7 is as massive as any season finale we've ever had, so it made sense to everybody concerned to separate the season there. Episode 7 actually serves as the top of the second act — and we really feel that our ultimate act had sufficient meat on the bone to make up Quantity 2.”
Maintain scrolling to see which forged members have confirmed they're returning — and who received't be again:
Winona Ryder
Ryder's Joyce has been featured within the season 5 trailer and stills.
David Harbour
David Harbour Courtesy of Netflix
Earlier than filming the finale season, Harbour teased Hopper's potential story line in season 5.
“We're strolling into season 5. I've acquired a pair extra months to coach,” he stated on the Center East Movie & Comedian Con in March 2023. “I did a variety of coaching for season 4. He [Hopper] was in a really particular place, that Russian jail. It was about making him a special man and form of shedding a layer of himself bodily, mentally, and emotionally. However now he's again on the town, he's again in America the place they've cheeseburgers, so he will likely be well-fed.”
Millie Bobby Brown
Brown admitted in March 2023 she was “very prepared” to maneuver on from Stranger Issues, however Eleven will seem.
“I'm positively able to wrap up. I really feel like there's a variety of the story that's been advised now,” she defined to Seventeen. “It's been in our lives for a really very long time. However I'm very able to say goodbye to this chapter of my life, and open new ones up. I'm in a position to create tales myself which can be essential to me and give attention to the larger image. However I'm actually grateful [for the show].”
Finn Wolfhard
Wolfhard, who performs Mike, completely advised Us Weekly that he was mourning the top of the present after returning for season 5. He known as the ultimate season “bittersweet, bitter after which candy.”
Gaten Matarazzo
“There's an pleasure there since you at all times wish to wrap it up and also you wish to see how these characters are going to lastly develop one final time, and the way they're going to complete their journeys,” Matarazzo stated on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon in March 2023, noting that the expertise was “bittersweet” as nicely. “But in addition, there's a deep worry that's been like — not solely has it been superb, nevertheless it's been, like, fairly nice job safety.”
Matarazzo stated he was trying ahead to Dustin's ultimate arc. “I feel [the story is] in the most effective palms it may be,” he defined. “Matt and Ross know these characters higher than I feel we would. It's actually attention-grabbing 'trigger they belief us all very a lot to make our personal selections and go concerning the scenes the best way we've at all times instinctually needed to.”
Caleb McLaughlin
McLaughlin is reprising his function as Lucas after ending season 4 on a dramatic notice.
Noah Schnapp
“There will certainly be one other heart level for Will in season 5 and I feel it's actually thrilling and I'm positively so excited to see what they've in retailer,” Schnapp completely advised Us in January 2023. “They received't inform me specifics, however they have been like, ‘You simply wait. You'll be very glad and excited. So sit tight.'”
He continued: “I feel the story opened and began with Will, and I feel ending it with him and circling again on that could be a good means for them to wrap it up.”
Sadie Sink
Whereas season 4 ended with Sink's Max in a coma, photographs from the set confirmed that the actress returns in some capability.
Natalia Dyer
“I've little question the larger, scarier, action-y plot will likely be very a lot there. That's virtually assured,” Dyer advised Netflix's Tudum in July 2022 about her needs for season 5 earlier than returning to movie. “However I actually am trying ahead to hopefully having a few of these good character moments of those individuals connecting and exhibiting that they care about one another. That's the guts of what we love to do. I consider that's a part of the enchantment of the present — the guts.”
Charlie Heaton
Heaton, who performs Jonathan, is confirmed to be a part of the season 5 forged after being with the present since its 2016 debut on Netflix.
Joe Keery
Keery a.ok.a fan-favorite Steve admitted in August 2023 that whereas it “does really feel prefer it's time” to wrap up the collection, it “received't be simple” to see all of it come to an finish.
“I owe my complete profession to being on that present and all of the alternatives that I had since are due to that present,” he advised WWD on the time whereas filming. “So it's very convoluted. There's a way of reduction, there's a way of disappointment. I assume my objective is to only actually soak it up as a lot as I can whereas we're doing it, and never take any of it with no consideration as a result of it's been an incredible experience with such nice individuals. After which as soon as it's accomplished, transfer ahead and attempt to simply maintain on to the enjoyment that we had after we have been making it.”
Keery added that “all the things has a starting and the center and an finish” so it is going to be “it'll be good to have the top of [Stranger Things] too.”
Maya Hawke
After returning to set as Robin, Hawke stated it was “already beginning to be heartbreaking,” telling Leisure Tonight in June 2024, “It's the top of a extremely lengthy journey. Longer for a few of my castmates, even, than for me. So it's actually sentimental. However as a late addition to the forged member, I really feel prefer it's my job to be right here to facilitate their emotions and simply be grateful and excited to have been part of it in any respect.”
Bringing a task to life. Stranger Issues places a variety of work into making viewers really feel like they've been transported to a fictional city in Indiana throughout the '80s — which incorporates reworking their actors into fully totally different individuals. The Netflix collection, which debuted in 2016, facilities round supernatural occasions that happen in […]
Eduardo Franco
Franco, who joined the forged in season 5 as Jonathan's finest good friend Argyle, revealed throughout a January 2024 look on the Steve Varley present that he wouldn't be returning for the ultimate season.
When host Steve Varley shared that followers have been in a “panic” after a forged picture was launched with Franco lacking, the actor stated he appreciates that there's “some concern” however he “by no means acquired a cellphone name” about reprising the function.
“So I feel, yeah, I feel that's it,” he added.
Brett Gelman
“It's going nice and it's going to be superb,” Gelman completely advised Us in July 2024 about being midway by way of filming the Netflix present's ultimate season as Murray.
Gelman reassured Us that viewers will likely be pleased with how Stranger Issues involves an finish, saying, “The followers are going to like it.”
Priah Ferguson
Ferguson, who performs Erica Sinclair, mirrored on how the ultimate season of Stranger Issues is all about wrapping unfastened story strains up. “I positively wish to see closure for the entire collection. Hopefully on the finish of season 5, I wish to see closure and the entire state of affairs being resolved,” she advised Us in Could 2022. “I don't need it to finish on a really traumatic state of affairs just like the previous seasons have. I would like it to be that we defeated the monster and we received over it.”
Jamie Campbell Bower
In July 2024, Netflix launched a video exhibiting the forged filming the ultimate season. Followers caught glimpses of Bower reprising his spooky function as Vecna.
Joseph Quinn
“No, sadly, RIP. [Eddie is] absolutely beneath that floor,” Matt advised Empire in October 2025. “I really like that Joe Quinn is toying with individuals! However no, he's useless.”
