Summary

Stranger Things will soon end its successful run after season five, impacting the emotional journey of the cast.
Finn Wolfhard reflects on the show's end, equating it to a decade-long journey comparing it to "Toy Story 3."
Filming for the last season was compared to a year-long "Lord of the Rings" shoot, ensuring a satisfying finale.

Stranger Things is set to return for its last and final season, much to its fanbase's dismay. Ahead of its grand finale in season five, one of the show's stars reflects on what it means to them to see the show come to an end after so long in an emotional and heartbreaking statement.

Netflix's Stranger Things premiered its first season back in 2016 and, after almost ten years of incredible success, the Duffer Brothers' hit sci-fi horror series will finally wrap up its long tenure. Although it certainly feels like the coming-of-age show ran for longer than five seasons, production took nearly 10 years to complete because of a three-year gap between season three and season four, which premiered in 2019 and 2022. The schedule for Stranger Things was also pushed back due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, but thankfully, filming on the last season finally got underway on January 8th, 2024, and now, the epic series is gearing up for its big season five finale in 2025. Going off of the recent Stranger Things season five final episode titles, the town of Hawkins, which will be set in 1987, will be in for a much darker season this time around.

Finn Wolfhard Discusses Stranger Things ‘Incredibly Emotional’ Ending

Speaking recently to Variety, Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler, talked about his time on the Stranger Things set and what the end of the show meant to him after growing up on the show over the span of ten years. Wolfhard expressed that the entire process has been “incredibly emotional,” and that the production process for season five was intense. “It was incredibly emotional, obviously,” stated Wolfhard. “It’s the last 10 years of my life. Also for the creators, the Duffer Bros. Started when they were 30, and now they are 40. Everyone had a long journey and shared it together." The 22-year-old Canadian actor, who began his Stranger Things journey when he was only 12, made a heartfelt Pixar reference to the wholesome movie Toy Story 3 to convey how difficult it was to walk away from something that had been a huge impact on his life. "My whole childhood was there. It was sort of the ‘Toy Story 3’ moment of leaving your toys behind. It was really special."

Wolfhard went on to share that filming season five of Stranger Things was a long process, likening the show's development to the iconic Peter Jackson trilogy. “We had a long last year. We shot sort of Lord of the Rings style with a year-long shoot. It was a great way to go out and very intense. I feel like it couldn’t have ended better.” At the end of last year, Netflix CEO, Ted Sarandos, revealed that the final season of Stranger Things was "so good" and "an incredibly emotional experience."

Although there is no word of a release date at present, Stranger Things season five will premiere on Netflix in 2025.