Stranger Things Season 5 Trailer Reveals Why This Show Takes So Damn Long to Make

The biggest threat on Netflix’s global hit Stranger Things isn’t the Demogorgon, Mind Flayer, nor Vecna – it’s the Gregorian calendar.

That last time we caught up with the haunted denizens of Hawkins, Indiana was in Stranger Things season 4, released to Netflix in July 2022. Given the accelerated nature of time in the internet era though, 2022 might as well have been the 1986 in which Will, Lucas, Dustin, Mike, Eleven, and friends reside.

Given its impressive sci-fi/horror scale, Stranger Things takes quite a long time to produce. Aside from a modest 16-month wait between season 1 and season 2, every subsequent hiatus for the Duffer Brothers’ creation has approached and/or exceeded three full years. As such, Stranger Things has become an unwilling standard bearer for a television era marked by epic excess, for better or worse.

Still, sometimes all the conversations around Stranger Things‘ bloated production timelines omit the question of why fresh episodes take so long to produce in the first place. Are the Duffer Brothers and company just twiddling their thumbs over there while the show’s young cast reaches their mid twenties? Based on the first full trailer for Stranger Things season 5, the answer to that is a definitive “no.” This two-and-half-minute clip is every bit as action-packed as you hoped it would be.

To say there is a lot to unpack here would be to put it mildly. We open with everyone’s favorite babysitter (and alt/indie maestro) Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) fiddling with some radio dials. The frequency ratchets up through the remainder of the trailer, coinciding with fresh horrors attacking Hawkins and culminating with the arrival or our old friend Vecna – who looks as vital and gooey as ever.

Other highlights include the complete militarization of a southern Indiana town, the unfortunate vandalization of poor Eddie Munson’s gravestone, and more than one demogorgon unleashed on an unsuspecting Rightside Up. And that’s not even to mention the debut of Linda Hamilton’s character who appears poised to continue the actor’s badass sci-fi legacy.

Perhaps the most notable bit of information, however, is an exclusion. Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) was left in a coma following her Vecna confrontation in season 4. This trailer offers up no indications that she’ll experience a miraculous recovery any time soon. The only time we see her is in a familiar hospital bed, with Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) faithfully at her side.

Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 premieres on Wednesday, November 26 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Volume 2 arrives Thursday, December 25 at at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The final episode will be available to stream Wednesday, December 31 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Netflix’s synopsis for the final season reads:

The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.