It has also led to a whole franchise of spin-offs and tie-ins, including a prequel theatre show (Stranger Things: The First Shadow) and an upcoming animated series (Stranger Things: Tales from ’85), plus board games, comics and clothing lines. On top of that, it has made superstars of its young actors, including Millie Bobby Brown – who plays Eleven, the girl with supernatural powers, held captive in the cruel living science experiment – Sadie Sink, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp.
But back in 2022, it was announced that this fifth season would also be its last. Despite it being a globally successful juggernaut, it’s a fitting time to wrap up the series, not least for the reason that the original “kid” leads are now mostly in their early 20s. Perhaps because of this, the final season, set in 1987, sees the kingpin ghoul, known as Vecna, Henry Creel or One (played mostly under gruesome prosthetics by Jamie Campbell Bower) targeting a new generation of children, presumably to tug on viewers’ heartstrings a little further.
There’s one child in particular, Holly (Nell Fisher), that Vecna takes a shine to in his newest form, who appears as an imaginary friend, and stalks people’s minds. Holly is the younger sister to Mike Wheeler (Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer). They and their peers’ mission in the opening four episodes of this series, released today is, as Mike puts it, to make “goddamn sure that wrinkled, noseless, rotting” mega-villain is “dead and gone and never coming back”.
New challenges
It’s easier said than done, as the odds are stacked against them more than ever. There’s a new human adversary in the shape of the ruthless Doctor Kay – played by Terminator star Linda Hamilton – who is a military scientist hunting down Eleven (Brown). Eleven and Hopper (David Harbour) are on the run as fugitives, but the rest of the lead group of characters are now mostly reunited; they develop ever more madcap ideas using radio tracking devices to take down Vecna, whose hive mind and demogorgons keep spilling out into Hawkins. All of this is taking place while the town is under quarantine and military rule, following the Upside Down hellpit beneath it breaking open fully in the previous series.
