Stranger Things season five may have come to a much-discussed conclusion, but will there ever be a sixth season? Find out below.
The hit Netflix series appeared to come to a conclusion with its two-hour season five finale on New Year’s Eve, in which the heroic group of friends came together one final time to defeat the evil Vecna.
That final episode proved to be controversial, with some fans disappointed that Millie Bobby Brown’s character Eleven’s fate remained ambiguous, while others subscribed to the now-debunked Conformity Gate theory, which speculated that a surprise final ninth episode was in the works to undo some of the revelations of the finale.
The final episode also made waves musically, with streams of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ and ‘When Doves Cry’ more than doubling on Spotify after their inclusion in the episode. Iron Maiden have since celebrated their track ‘The Trooper’ being included, while David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ has also seen a huge streaming surge.
One of the stars of the show Randy Havens debunked a theory last week that there is an unreleased cut of the fifth season. “There is no Snyder Cut of the show, please don’t believe everything some random ass tells you on the internet,” he said.
The Duffer brothers, meanwhile, have admitted that they wish they hadn’t done any interviews explaining the final episode. “I really shouldn’t have done any of these postmortem interviews” Matt Duffer said. “I am not in a good place. Like, why the hell did we do any of them yesterday is beyond me. I’m, like, fried. I was getting over the flu. So, anyone mad at any answers we gave you yesterday, just cut me some slack.”
Will Stranger Things ever return for season six?
The Duffer brothers and Netflix have been clear that Stranger Things has concluded with its fifth season.
The Hollywood Reporter recently pressed the Duffers on whether there was any possibility that they might return to the Hawkins clan years down the road. “I mean, Mike’s closing the basement door,” Matt Duffer responded. “We’re closing the door on the story. That’s one reason we had the closing credits the way that we did, because it was a way of saying: This is finite. This is the end of their story. It’s the end of the story of Mike and Eleven and Joyce [Winona Ryder] and Hopper.”
“So, no, there’s no plan or intention to tell the story because it’s a coming-of age story,” he added. “Ultimately, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the show always was. When he closes the door to the basement, he’s closing the door on his childhood and he’s moving onto adulthood. I mean, I guess a sequel could be about a midlife crisis. That just sounds really uninteresting! (Laughs.) Grandpa Hopper? I don’t know how that would read as anything but a gross cash grab to me.”
There are, however, multiple spinoff series currently in the works in the Stranger Things universe.
One is a live-action show that the Duffer brothers have described as exploring “new characters and a new mythology”, but without the characters from the main show.
“It’s a different decade and different characters, but of course, still connected to the Stranger Things universe,” Ross Duffer explained. “It’s an idea we’ve had for years and something we’re just really excited and passionate about. We won’t be showrunning that show, but we’ll be heavily involved. So, as the new year comes around, we’re going to start spending more time on that. Hopefully it’s something announced soon-ish.”
There is also a separate animated spinoff coming, titled Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85. It is also being executive produced by the Duffer brothers and will take place between the second and third seasons of the main show. It is scheduled to premiere on Netflix later this year.