The wait for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is well underway, with anticipation already building to feverish levels for the incredibly popular series. The show was named as 2022's most-streamed TV show, and overall program, by Nielsen, and now we have a morsel of new information about the production of Stranger Things 5, courtesy of star Noah Schnapp, according to the report of Collider.
Schnapp, who plays Will Byers on the show, was asked by a fan during an Instagram Live session if his schooling would interfere with shooting for the final season of the Netflix series. Schnapp responded that there would be no crossover, as he both finishes school and begins production of the fifth season in May of this year.
The series is not expected to air on Netflix until some time in 2024 — when the kids in the cast will most likely be married with kids of their own, or celebrating retirement, such is the length of time production tends to take — but show creators The Duffer Brothers have teased details of what fans can expect from the final trip to Hawkins, Indiana.
“The success of Season 1 freaked us out and then we knew we needed to build up this bigger world, that this was going to be ongoing,” said Ross Duffer to Netflix, via their Tudum site. "That meant prep for Season 2 included filling up a whiteboard with every idea the writers’ room could imagine. But it was way too much — [five times] more ideas than we needed, or [ten times]. For Season 5, we're pulling from a lot of those big Season 2 ideas… A lot of our big ending stuff has pulled from stuff that we thought was going to be in Season 2.”
Committed fans of the series will be able to recall that the second season was very Will Byers-heavy, after a first season when Schnapp was billed as a guest star, focusing on his recovery from spending a prolonged length of time trapped in the Upside Down by the Mind Flayer, as well as his perennial connection to the creature. In addition, the second season also further explored the mysterious past of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) - which was expanded upon in season 4, specifically her time being brought up in Hawkins Laboratory as an experimental project.
That included her relationship with Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower) who, via a demonstration of her precocious power and preternatural strength, she sent into the Upside Down, banishing him there but in turn, transforming him into the terrifying creature Vecna, who spent the entire fourth season haunting and terrorizing the young people of Hawkins.
The season, of course, ended with the Upside Down beginning to bleed into Hawkins, with cracks quite literally appearing between worlds, leaving our heroes facing the battle of their lives.
Stranger Things 1-4 are available to watch now on Netflix.