‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 First Look: Nostalgic, Slimy Behind-the-Scenes Footage Reveals New Cast Members

It’s the beginning of the end for “Stranger Things.”

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Netflix unveiled the first look at the fifth and final season of its blockbuster sci-fi adventure series on Monday, with a behind-the-scenes video from the set that also revealed three new actors who are joining the show: Nell Fisher (“Evil Dead Rise”), Alex Breaux (“Waco: The Aftermath”) and newcomer Jake Connelly.

Narrated by several of the main cast members, the video captures footage largely from the Atlanta-based soundstages where “Stranger Things” Season 5 has been filming for the majority of 2024, with a great deal of the season still yet to shoot — Caleb McLaughlin says in voiceover that they’re roughly halfway through production. While the video diligently avoids revealing much of anything about the storyline for Season 5, there are still some intriguing, blink-and-you’ll-miss-them moments.

There’s a shot of the core friend group — Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gates Matarazzo), Lucas (McLaughlin) and Will (Noah Schnapp) — huddled together around a radio, followed by a shot of that foursome joined by Joyce (Winona Ryder), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Steve (Joe Keery) gathered around an overhead projector. These characters were separated for the majority of Season 4, so it’s a relief to see them all working together again. Dustin also appears to be wearing a Hellfire Club t-shirt, indicating he’s keeping alive the spirit of the club’s departed leader, Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn).

Curiously, there aren’t any shots of Millie Bobby Brown with any of the other cast, but Brown does remark that the show has spanned 10 years of her life.

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Elsewhere, there are several shots that appear to be of the Upside Down, as well as a member of the crew applying dripping goo to some mysterious red tendrils. Jamie Campbell Bower — who plays Vecna, aka Henry Creel, the central villain of the series — says that “Season 4 was big” but “Season 5 definitely feels bigger.” And Linda Hamilton (“The Terminator,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”) — the latest 1980s cinema icon to join the cast — appears briefly, saying in voiceover, “I love this show so much — I really am a fan.”

The new actors also show up in fleeting shots. Fisher, who played the terrified daughter in 2023’s “Evil Dead Rise,” plays a girl (possibly Mike’s younger sister Holly) whose bedroom is filled with flashing lights à la Season 1. Breaux, who played Timothy McVeigh in the 2023 Showtime series “Waco: The Aftermath,” can be briefly seen brandishing a rifle. And there’s a shot of Connelly standing next to Lucas’ sister Erica (Priah Ferguson), presumably as one of her classmates.

Netflix has not announced when Season 5 will debut, though it is expected some time in 2025.

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