The hit ’80s sci-fi series may be set in Hawkins Indiana, but brothers and Bull City natives Matt and Ross Duffer have included many hometown shoutouts since the show’s premiere. In the fifth and final season, they even hand-picked a familiar face to be part of the action: Hope Hynes Love, their former high school drama teacher, who they credit for pursuing their passion professionally.
“High school was rough for me and my brother. But Hope [Hynes Love] saw something in us we didn’t see in ourselves — and she helped give us the confidence to not only survive those four years, but to move to LA and chase our dreams,” co-creator Ross Duffer wrote in an Instagram post.
She and the Duffer duo have stayed in touch since they graduated from Jordan High School. But Love — who now teaches at East Chapel Hill — was still shocked that she had the chance to get out of the classroom and on set with her former students’ show.
Hope Hynes Love as Miss Harris in Stranger Things: Season 5. Courtesy of Netflix
The nationally board certified theater educator spoke with The News & Observer about her surprise role that she landed within 24 hours.
(Note: The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.)
N&O: Have you seen ‘Stranger Things’ before?
Love: “I have a teacher page — @hopehyneslovestoteach on Facebook … So before ‘Stranger Things’ came out, it was getting a little bit of buzz in the Sci Fi community, and I put it up on my page to boost their numbers and I said, ‘Hey, folks, if you’re former students or your current students, these are things that former students of mine are doing … You should watch and support them.’”
“Then I went to China, and by the time I came back from China, it had dropped on Netflix and blown up. I remember being on the train from [Boston] Logan International Airport to where I was picking up my car at the park and ride, and somebody ahead of us said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m never going to be able to survive work today. I stayed up and binge watched this new series on Netflix. It’s amazing. Have you seen it? ‘Stranger Things?’
“It took my all — like ‘Be cool, old lady’ …. to not stand up and lean over the seat and be like, ‘I taught them!’ So yeah, I’ve been a fan forever.”
N&O: How did you get cast on this season of the show?
Love: “They reached back out after Season 4 and said, ‘Oh, we thought we had a cameo for you in 4, but it had to be cut. Maybe we’ll get a chance to work together in the future.’ I showed that to my husband, like, ‘What a gracious lie of these boys. How lovely are they?’”
“Then [Season] 5 was in the planning stages, and I got an email from them saying, ‘We think we have a cameo. We know you’re super busy. Could you find the time?’
“…You put me on any stage in the world. I’m ready … but camera work is a different calibration, and I haven’t calibrated like that in 20 years… [I told them] ‘If you need me to audition and make sure that I can calibrate back, I’m happy, that makes sense to me, because I realized the level you all are working at’, and they basically said, ‘Yeah, whatever.’
“…In 24 hours, I was on the wheel of being cast.”
N&O: Did you have any influence over your character’s wardrobe?
Love: “For me, as a lifelong director, those were the places that I was most comfortable and really leaned into the process.
“One of the things that I used to say to my students about auditioning is any tricks that you can have to sort of calm yourself down and remind yourself that you are an entity unto yourself. So I would always use the example that I have little temporary butterfly tattoos … and Amy [Parris, the show’s costume designer] took that. If you look at my costumes in Episode 4, the butterflies on my sweatshirt are a reference to that. And you can’t see them, but under the wig, they gave me heart earrings for that first episode, for Love. She did all these little, tiny, beautiful Easter eggs inside of my costume.”
Hope Hynes Love as Miss Harris in Stranger Things: Season 5. Courtesy of Netflix
N&O: What was your most memorable part of this unexpected experience?
Love: “Just to be with the boys. We haven’t breathed the same air since they graduated high school. We’ve been in touch electronically, but it was just nice to be in the same space together and chit-chat … It’s different sending a text like, ‘You’re wonderful and I’m really excited for the season’ and to be in the same space and just face to face, say, ‘I am so proud of you both, and this is amazing’ and just to share that moment.”
N&O: Will Miss Harris will be in any other upcoming episodes?
“I don’t know if I’ll be in any upcoming episodes and even if I did, I would pretend like I didn’t know. I’m a firm believer in the anticipation and surprise of stories because it mimics real life. We don’t know what is around the corner — we all have to wait. I am someone who didn’t want to know the gender of my child until they were born. I am firmly against shaking the Christmas presents and I think it should be a misdemeanor to read the last chapter of a book you’ve just started. So, no, I can’t and I won’t share that information, on principle.”
‘Stranger Things’ release dates
The fifth season is being released in three installments: Volume 1 (episodes 1-4) was released on Netflix Wednesday, Nov. 26, then Volume 2 (episodes 5-7) will drop on Thursday, Dec. 25 and the season finale on Wednesday, Dec. 31.
Fans across can watch the finale on the big screen at select theaters nationwide, Netflix announced this fall. (The finale will also stream on Netflix.)
This story was originally published December 23, 2025 at 10:00 AM.
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The wait is finally over, and Stranger Things is back on our screens this holiday weekend.
The epic final season of the Duffer Brothers’ smash supernatural retro series rips open the Upside Down to see how the threat arrived in Hawkins. Between Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) taking more kids and the government seeking out Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Stranger Things‘ gang of heroes must gather the troops and be ready for anything.
Nancy (Natalia Dyer) leads the charge alongside Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) in planning to kill Vecna—while also skirting government surveillance to find out what the military is doing in the Upside Down since the ground ripped open in their town.
Eleven hones her powers for a final showdown against Vecna, who is recruiting Hawkins youth while disguised as Henry and calling himself Mr. Whatsit; his targets include Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher). With both Vecna and the government causing chaos, Steve (Joe Keery), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Robin (Maya Hawke), and Erica (Priah Ferguson) all step up to be Hawkins’ saviors.
But it’s Will (Noah Schnapp) and Max (Sadie Sink), whose connections to the Upside Down may come in handy to back up Eleven, that really have us so hyped for the rest of the season.
Here are the things we liked about season five, volume one—and some of the things we didn’t like as much.
Will getting the “goosies” is how he taps into the hive mind, and that makes him this season’s secret weapon. His ability to access the shared consciousness that powers Vecna finally comes in handy, giving Hawkins’ heroes a man on the inside who can spot incoming threats.
Liked: The radio station
Robin works as Hawkins’ radio DJ and is the voice of the station she, Steve, and Nancy run. It’s a way to send covert messages to their team, including Murray (Brett Gelman) and Hopper, about the government’s moves—if you pay attention to her yapping in between the choice music played. Loved the Diana Ross “Upside Down” needle drop. The home base change is welcome and adds a new layer of nostalgia for the days before music streaming and the heyday of radio personalities.
Plus, it feels very Star Wars to jack into the radio signals to track the bad guys and figure out how to smuggle weapons and goods in and out of Hawkins. Steve gives us Han Solo vibes to the max when he drives the mobile station, intercepting radio signals of the Upside Down while Hopper is in there doing more spy business. Dustin, as his co-pilot and tech genius, wins our hearts.
Didn’t like: Jonathan’s obsession with Steve
Ever since his return from California, Jonathan has been focusing on Steve being better than him to a weird degree. Their competition for Nancy’s attention is tiring, and even Steve is sick of it. He rightfully calls out Jonathan for focusing more on him than Nancy because he just sucks as a boyfriend. Steve has demonstrated he has been in the trenches with the kids protecting them and has matured since his high school jerk days. It’s emotional growth Jonathan lacks and won’t be fixed by proposing to Nancy, which gave us the ick when we saw the ring Murray smuggled for him. I dread the moment he’ll pop the question.
Didn’t Like: Not enough Henry Creel origin explanation
Fans lucky enough to attend the Stranger Things: The First Shadow play (or, barring an actual theater visit, who scoured TikTok for recaps of it) will be more in the know about Henry Creel’s past than folks who just watch the series. We get a little glimpse of his younger years in the show, but not enough to really understand what his going to school with Joyce, Hopper, Bob Newby, and a random Harrington means. In the play, as he’s learning about his powers with Brenner, he’s fighting the mind flayer’s control with the help of Patty Newby, Bob’s sister.
Liked: Vecna as Mr. Whatsit
In the awesome Frank Darabont-directed third episode, we see Henry return to an idyllic version of his home, frozen in time within the period he was last there. His new plan is so creepy because while he is actually Freddy Krueger-like and stalks kids, he’s luring them as a friendly man in his Henry form who wants to save them from the monsters. It’s so eerie, and the Americana version of his mansion’s wonderland, where he acts like Mister Rogers around Holly Wheeler and others, is chillingly perfect.
Nancy becoming the de facto leader is giving Sarah Connor vibes—in a season where Linda Hamilton shows up to boot. Vecna taking Holly after attacking the Wheeler parents really changes her and makes her more interested in destroying Vecna than boys (thank god). She’s the brains behind the operation, guiding every player on the table to use their skills to defeat Vecna. Under her leadership, they figure out that Vecna is targeting kids and hatch a plan to protect them.
Didn’t Like: Not enough Dr. Kay
Linda Hamilton as Dr. Kay is such an iconic choice, and her introduction was one we were anticipating as soon as we learned about her casting. Season five is juggling a lot of characters, so maybe it’s to be expected that we haven’t gotten much Kay so far. But knowing that she’s basically the new Brenner-esque big bad in the lab working for the government gives us the heebie jeebies. We want to know more about why she wants Eleven and whether or not she really intends to find a way to control Vecna.
Liked: Robin and Will’s connection
Will coming into his own with Robin’s help is such a sweet subplot. Will and Robin recognize one another in ways the others can’t, and it rings so true. Robin being a mentor to Will to help him embrace who he is, melding with his acceptance of his connection to the Upside Down, really builds to the best payoff in volume one.
Eleven’s training montage was sick, and seeing her really lean into her powers finally in the Upside Down was so cool. She’s grown up, and Hopper did good with his ward in helping her be empowered by those she loves. Whether or not she’s the one to deal the final blow (we presume) to Vecna, we can’t wait to see it.
Steve and Dustin still have our whole hearts; this show better not touch one hair or curl on their heads. (We know it will.) And that’s what’s so great about the show: every friendship dynamic, not just theirs, and even the new ones like Will and Robin, really feel relatable and that much more critical when they’re in danger. Plus, all the new kids, including Holly, get great moments to shine in their kidnapping plot, which feels very Amblin-meets-Wes Craven-by-way-of-Goonies. So many funny moments within the breakneck action!
Liked: Max lives (sort of)!
Max is alive, in a way; she’s living in Henry’s head and can see his memories as well as his plans. Seeing Sadie Sink’s return as a hero in the “dreamworld” realm of the Upside Down is freaking epic as she guides Holly away from Henry’s deceptions. She’s also a way in to seek out Vecna’s weaknesses and has survived long enough to outsmart him in his own mind by hiding in a cave.
Didn’t Like: The mysterious cave
Okay, so I found the introduction of the cave annoying because I know it’s where Henry first encountered the entity that powers the Upside Down, which is explained in the Stranger Things play. I know it’s still just volume one, but doling out incremental information doesn’t help viewers really understand why this setting matters and why Vecna gets super scared of the cave.
Eight is back! Turns out she’s who Kay has been using to seek out Vecna in the Upside Down base, much like how Brenner was trying to use Eleven to do the same in earlier seasons. Seeing her return is exciting and finally connects her missing thread to the action. It gives Eleven her sister back, which we love.
Will and Vecna meet face-to-face in the middle of the action, where the Demogorgons are snatching kids left and right. It’s terrifying and pulled off in a way where you think Hawkins’ heroes are taking another L, especially when Vecna says he picked Will because he was weak, just like the others he needs to take back with him. And just as you think the Demogorgons are about to kill Mike, Joyce, Lucas, and Robin—Will taps into the hive to take control of the Demogorgons, then destroys them with newfound psychic powers in the same way Vecna killed Chrissy. He successfully turns the tables on Vecna, and it’s such a great payoff to see him reclaim his agency against his kidnapper.
More Stranger Things season five episodes arrive December 25, with the grand finale dropping December 31 on Netflix.
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 5, Volume 1 of “Stranger Things.”
In the battle that concludes Volume 1 of “Stranger Things 5” — in “Sorcerer,” written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer — it appears at first that all is lost. The murderous creatures of the Upside Down have breached the military zone, and begin a mass slaughter of the soldiers, who’ve underestimated their foes. Elsewhere, Robin (Maya Hawke) and Murray (Brett Gelman) try to bring some of the endangered school children of Hawkins to safety in a truck, as they’re chased by Demogorgons. Meanwhile, the good guys’ biggest assets, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Hopper (David Harbour), are in the base in the Upside Down, where they’ve made an important discovery: Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), one of the other telekinetic kids from the Hawkins Lab experiments, with whom Eleven bonded in Season 2, is alive and being held there.
During a lull in the battle, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) steps through the membrane of the Upside Down to survey his quarry, where Joyce (Winona Ryder), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and his original prey, Will (Noah Schnapp) — along with the remaining military officers and soldiers — seem to be no match for him. Vecna effortlessly extends his arms to turn their weapons against them, pushing fire back on the soldiers and pulling a pin on a grenade. He then levitates Will, and brings him to him, face to face. “Can you see them, William? Can you see the children?” he asks. “Do you know why I chose them to reshape the world? It’s because they are weak. Weak in body and mind.” He says this as the Demogorgons drag the kids Will and his friends had been trying to save into the Upside Down, where he’s already taken Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher). Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) helplessly watches from the escape tunnel as one child is sucked into the Upside Down through a wall, and Robin sees that all the kids in the truck are gone.
Vecna, taunting, calls the children “perfect vessels,” as he touches Will’s face almost gently. “And you, Will, you were the first,” he says. “And you broke so easily. You showed me what was possible, what I could achieve. Some minds, it turns out, simply do not belong in this world. They belong in mine.” He lets Will drop, and strides back into the Upside Down, confident that the Demogorgons will finish the job. But just as the massacre is set to recommence, Will remembers what Robin — to whom he’s felt bonded since realizing that she, too, is queer — had said to him earlier: that she’d always had all the answers within her, and she just needed to stop being scared of who she was Home movies begin to play in his mind. He remembers the first time he met Mike, who asked if he wanted to be friends; he remembers drawing things with crayons and showing them to a loving Joyce; he remembers building Castle Byers with Jonathan in woods near their home.
Noah Schnapp and Jamie Campbell Bower
Courtesy of Netflix
It’s then that Will accesses the powers he (and we!) didn’t know he has, stopping each Demogorgon in place before they kill Mike, Lucas and Robin. Will can see through their eyes, he realizes, and — as indicated through arm gestures — he snaps the Demos’ limbs, killing all of them. The final image of Volume 1 is Will raising his head, and wiping his nosebleed with his sleeve, as we’ve seen Eleven do a thousand times on “Stranger Things” — as he stares with purpose into the distance.
In a longinterview with the Duffer brothers for Variety’s Oct. 15 cover story, Ross Duffer said, “We’ve been talking about Will having powers for as long as I can really remember.”
Below, the Duffers delve into what those powers are, the season’s opening flashback sequence, why the climax of “Sorcerer” (and that oner!) was “logistically the most difficult thing we ever did,” how they deployed Max, the return of Eight, the attack on the Wheeler house — and much, much more.
We have to start with Will. Will! Does he have Eleven’s powers? Or is it something different?
Ross Duffer: It’s different in that he’s able to channel Vecna’s powers. But they’re all related. Vecna and Eleven, their powers are similar. The powers aren’t within him. He’s able to channel these powers from Vecna and use it, sort of puppeteering.
Matt Duffer: He taps into the hive mind, and then he can manipulate anything within the hive. You’ll see how far he can take it as you continue to watch. But that’s how he’s able to manipulate the monster. So he can’t open a door, because the door is not part of the hive mind.
Is this something that he always had that Vecna identified, or did he get it because Vecna grabbed him?
Matt Duffer: He got it because he got hooked into the hive mind.
Ross Duffer: If he’s not close to the hive mind, he’s not able to access or tap it.
Matt Duffer: It’s proximity based.
Had he not been taken to the Upside Down…
Matt Duffer: Never would’ve happened. So it’s very different from Eleven in that regard.
And how long have you known that this was something that Will had within him that you were going to build to?
Ross Duffer: We’ve been talking about Will having powers for as long as I can really remember.
Matt Duffer: He had a dark version of it in Season 2 — he was connected to Vecna. He could see what he saw, but he didn’t realize that at the time he was able to tap into it in a way and use it against Vecna. That’s something he doesn’t learn till this season. It took us a while to build there, but it was something we always intended to do. The details of it were a little rough until we started working on it.
Noah Schnapp and Maya Hawke
Courtesy of Netflix
What do you think came together for him after the gay pep talk from Robin and what Mike said to him about being a sorcerer? Do you have that thought out, or was it just a feeling?
Ross Duffer: We knew we wanted him to access these powers this season. Then we began talking about why now, and why is he able to do it now. Some of it is mythology-based in terms of the hive mind’s closer than it’s ever been for him. But most of what we were talking about was how has Will changed. Throughout the seasons, he’s been a little more fearful than the others. He hasn’t been a leader. He hasn’t accepted himself in the way that some of our characters have. So I think it was really talking about if he really is able to at least start to accept himself for who he is, will that give him the kind of strength that he needs in order to access these powers? That’s really where Episode 4 — and really the arc of the first four episodes — led for him.
Why doesn’t Vecna kidnap or kill Will in that moment?
Matt Duffer: You’ll see as it goes on, but he completely underestimates Will. He perceives him in the way that so many others have in his life, which is as weak, as nothing, as incapable of achieving anything great. So he completely underestimates him in that moment. Whether that’s going to happen again, you’ll have to watch Volume 2.
The home movie that goes through Will’s mind: How long were you planning to do that sequence?
Ross Duffer: The original draft of Chapter 4 did not have the flashback footage in it. When we read it through, it’s the same exact storyline with Robin, but because it’s such an internal shift for Will, we needed to be able to show that visually. That’s when we came up with the idea of Robin mentioning that she’d found these old tapes. So that was the only different thing that we changed about her monologue, but it allowed us to visually represent what was going through Will’s mind. Once we did that, we felt like the ending finally had the emotional kick that we wanted.
How much work was it to find the super young Will, Mike and Jonathan?
Matt Duffer: I know we were really scared about whether we were going to be able to find someone or not. I mean, initially, obviously there were conversations about, Do we do face replacement? Do we do what we did with Will at the beginning of the season? Budgetarily, it was impossible. It’s just very expensive.
Ross Duffer: The beginning scene he’s referencing, we were able to model it after Noah at that age, but this is even a younger age. So you start to get into uncanny valley world. It would’ve been extremely expensive, and also look creepy.
Matt Duffer: It was really fun, too, to film that with those kids.
So let’s talk about that opening of the season. Did young Eleven in Season 4 give you the confidence to make young Will in that opening sequence for Season 5? How did you pull that off?
Matt Duffer: We’re so proud of it. That’s all Weta. We’ve never worked with Weta before, but Betsy [Patterson], our visual effects supervisor, when she brought them on, she was confident that they would be able to do it. Usually when we’re writing this stuff, we don’t worry too much, sometimes to our detriment, about how we’re going to pull certain things off. It just felt absolutely right to start with a flashback of Will, and then you just turn to Betsy and then ultimately Weta to do it.
We did take a lot of learnings from the Eleven stuff last year, but this was more challenging, because we’ve all seen Will or Noah at this exact age before. We saw this scene, the very beginning of it, in Season 1. So it was very important that it was hyper-real. It’s the first visual effects work that was done on the show. They just did incredibly detailed work and then just kept honing and honing and honing. Sometimes you can’t figure out what’s wrong. You’re just like, “That’s not quite…” — usually it’s the lighting — and just work on every shot to death.
How long had you known that that had happened to Will in the Upside Down, that he and Vecna had actually crossed paths?
Ross Duffer: That’s an idea we’ve had for a while. I can’t remember exactly when, but when we first had that thought, immediately we started talking about Season 5: “That’s where we have to start. We have to bring it back full circle.” It sets up the season the way we want it to, which is everything is going back to Season 1, and everything is coming full circle. We thought there wasn’t really a better way to do that than to go back and see what Will had experienced.
In some ways, Dustin seems like the only character who’s having a natural trauma response to everything they went through in Season 4. How’d you decide that he’s the one who’s going to be carrying this stuff for them?
Matt Duffer: Well, he was the closest to Eddie. So the two who are most impacted by the events of Season 4 would be him and Lucas. But at least Lucas is trying, desperately, to keep hope alive [about Max], because it hasn’t been extinguished at this point, although he’s sort of losing it when we see him at the top of Episode 1. But Dustin has lost Eddie, so he’s struggling to remain optimistic because of their friendship and because of what he feels is a need to continue carrying that torch. It felt like the most interesting way to explore grief was through him.
Ross Duffer: When we talked about it with the writers, even in Season 1 when Mike and Lucas get in a fight, Dustin’s the one that pulls everything together. He in a lot of ways is the heart of that group. So it immediately puts all of our characters on edge, and the audience hopefully, too.
Nell Fisher
Courtesy of Netflix
How long have you known that Holly Wheeler would be a major character this season?
Matt Duffer: That was a new idea. We did not know until we started working on Season 5, probably pretty early in the process.
Ross Duffer: I don’t even think it was in the pandemic. Because we had so long [of a break] that we had time to not only finish [writing] Season 4, but pitch a version of Season 5. I don’t think she was even in that. That was the big breakthrough, having shot Season 4, coming back and realizing the drive of these kids getting taken. Once we realized that, we got really excited about making Holly the focus of that new group of kids.
How did you approach casting Holly Wheeler?
Ross Duffer: If you watch the previous seasons, Holly barely talks at all. So we didn’t really have much of a character there. She was just a little kid. Even Season 1, when we’re filming her, it was basically whatever one of the young twins would do, we would just try to capture it in real time. So we didn’t really have a voice for her.In the initial scripts, Holly was a little shyer and a little more withdrawn. And then as we found Nell, who’s such a character…
Matt Duffer: And more of an extrovert.
Ross Duffer: …we started infusing Nell’s personality into Holly.
Matt Duffer: We were really nervous about it. It is not like she had to look identical to the twins who were playing Holly in the past, but she had to resemble them enough that you weren’t totally confused. But more important than that, they have to be an incredible actor.
I remember seeing the “Evil Dead Rise” trailer and seeing her. I had not seen the movie. I just saw her in the trailer and I was like, “That’s Holly.” But then I didn’t remember that. [Our casting director] Carmen [Cuba] found her, brought her to us, and I was like, “I knew this like six months ago.” That would’ve saved us a lot of time.
Ross Duffer: Carmen’s going to get annoyed you’re taking credit for this.
Matt Duffer: She always thinks I take too much credit for the casting.
Nell Fisher and Cara Buono
Courtesy of Netflix
Speaking of the Wheelers, with the mauling of Karen and Ted in Episode 2, when they’re trying to protect Holly, how did you decide to bring these characters to the front who have been just around since moment one, but have been oblivious?
Matt Duffer: Oblivious! One of the early ideas was we finally had to bring them into the fold. It was easy, because we could bring anybody in the fold. It was the final season. Karen would’ve moved them out of Hawkins, had she learned any of this earlier. Finally, none of that mattered.
We’ve always wanted an attack on the Wheeler house, and to give Karen a killer badass moment, have her face down one of these monsters. Cara and Nell bonded. They got really close, and we just had an incredibly fun time shooting what is a very violent sequence. And yeah, Karen’s tough. She miraculously survives.
How did you decide when and how to reveal where Max is, and what’s going on with her?
Matt Duffer: We knew we wanted to keep her out of it for the first couple episodes, and we knew she was going to end an episode. At some point, we thought Episode 3 felt like the right time.
Ross Duffer: From the end of Season 4 when we kept her in the coma, we knew she was trapped in Vecna’s mindscape, and we knew that was going to be part of her journey, at least for Season 5. But it finally clicked when we realized that Holly could be there as well, and then the other kids. That’s when her storyline really came to life.
Matt Duffer: I can’t tell you how many hours are spent in the writers’ room discussing the movie “The Cell,” the Jennifer Lopez/Tarsem movie. It’s such a great concept, because they enter the mind of a serial killer. It was the closest thing we could think of that parallels what we were doing. Our serial killer mindscape ends up being pretty different, but it’s probably why we ended up having a desert in there. A lot of desert sequences in “The Cell.”
So Vecna’s mindscape is that in-between world?
Ross Duffer: Yeah. Holly’s nicknamed it Camazotz.
Matt Duffer: The boys are always referencing Dungeons & Dragons, and Holly doesn’t play Dungeons & Dragons, so we thought it’d be interesting if she’s referencing something she’s into.
The wall: Do we find out what created it?
Matt Duffer: You find out pretty much everything, is what I’ll say.I mean, there are still some mysteries. We don’t explain everything, but the wall, certainly, you understand.
Linnea Berthelsen and Millie Bobby Brown in Season 2 of “Stranger Things”
Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
The reveal that Eight (Linnea Berthelsen) has been kept captive by the military was a big surprise, in part because you were bringing back a storyline that seemed to have been dropped and set on fire and run away from. What was your thinking there?
Ross Duffer: Yeah, that’s two-fold. We want when someone watches through the entire show, it doesn’t feel like we dropped a storyline or a thread. That it all connects. You see how everything fits together. And that was definitely a loose plot strand.
But also, we really like Linnea and we felt that that episode [in Season 2] just didn’t give her a chance to do what we know she’s capable of doing. So part of it was to put her back in and give her a moment. But we didn’t want to just do it to do it. As we were breaking the season, we realized that bringing her back really helped us with the Eleven storyline and how we wanted to wrap her story up. So there was a real reason to do it beyond just to not leave this dangling plot thread.
Matt Duffer: We were shooting Season 2 really, really fast, because we were trying to hit this Halloween deadline. And the first script we wrote just flat out didn’t work, and then we had one week left to rewrite. I just don’t think we ever nailed it, obviously. I always felt bad that we didn’t figure that out for Linnea. But we felt we had something special with Linnea, so we wanted to bring her back. I think she’s awesome in the season, so I’m pretty excited about that.
The long battle sequence at the end of Episode 4: How long did it take to plan the extended oner shot in the battle?
Matt Duffer: Forever. It wasn’t originally written that way. We wanted it to feel very immersive, like you were in the middle of it. Ross and I hadn’t done anything like that before. The finale’s insane, but that sequence was logistically the most difficult thing we ever did.
The whole battle?
Matt Duffer: The whole battle, but specifically that oner, because it involved obviously a lot of stunts and visual effects and actors, but then also children. It is stitched together [from several shots]. I don’t want people to get mad at us when we call it a “oner,” because it’s at night and you’re working with children and stunts. We could only shoot about two hours a night. So we divided it up into, I think, four chunks, and we thought we could accomplish within the time that we had one chunk per night.
Ross Duffer: It was definitely the hardest thing we’ve ever done ever in terms of filmmaking.
No one dies in Volume 1, not even Ted and Karen, who seemed like goners for a second there. Did you contemplate having any kind of big death in this part of the season?
Ross Duffer: Once we decided we knew we wanted to do the Will power stuff this season, we knew that that’s how we had to end Volume 1. So there’s the low point of all the kids being taken, but the high point of Will has these powers. That was always the discussion. Vecna taking these children was the low point we needed for the end of Volume 1.
Will Volume 2 get bloodier?
Matt Duffer: I’ve said this before: The show is not “Game of Thrones.” I’m hoping it surprises people. But there’s no Red Wedding, if that’s what you’re asking. That would be depressing.
When Will gets that image of the temple that Vecna doesn’t want him to see, he sees Holly trapped inside that structure. Is that where Holly is actually physically located in that moment, or is he seeing something in the future?
Ross Duffer: Do we answer this?
Matt Duffer: I think this is OK.
Ross Duffer: Yes. That’s where Holly is at the present moment.
Vecna gets a real glow up.
Ross Duffer: That’s one way to put it!
Well, he’s looking good after almost being killed at the end of Season 4. Will we find out where he went after that?
Matt Duffer: Yeah, there’s a backstory to all of that that is actually never revealed in the show. The idea of it was based a little bit on the original “Hellraiser,” although it’s different than that. But yeah, he retreated to lick his wounds. Nancy blew holes all through his body, so he more or less rebuilt his body into something stronger and hopefully cooler. But it was a challenge because we also wanted his new design to reflect the fact that he had been injured. That’s why we ultimately had to go full CG on his body was because you see holes throughout his body. It was figuring out that balance took a long time.
So Jamie Campbell Bower is in a motion-capture suit?
Matt Duffer: He was just in a leotard, basically. But the important thing is they match his movement. And his face is completely him in makeup. We don’t touch that at all. That’s fully Jamie.
Do we know yet what Vecna wants?
Ross Duffer: No.
Matt Duffer: Nothing good.
He says that the kids are the way he’s going to remake the world.
Matt Duffer: Right. What does that mean?
It’s safe to assume it’s not a nice world that he wants.
Matt Duffer: I mean, depends on your perspective, you know?
Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin
Courtesy of Netflix
Will we be seeing more of Vecna’s memories in Volume 2?
Matt Duffer: Yes, that’s what we call our new Russia storyline, because it’s very few characters. They’re kind of isolated off on their own, Max and Holly. We’re very happy with how it integrates with the other storylines.
How much of all of that is real vs. a set?
Ross Duffer: The forest is real.
Matt Duffer: And the desert’s real. We went out to New Mexico to shoot any of the desert sequences. You’ll see more of them. The inside of the interior of the cave is a set build. That main outside of the cave is a set build right outside the forest. And the forest is the summertime set. That’s why we had to shoot some finale there when the leaves were green.
In “The First Shadow,” the prequel play that’s on Broadway and in the West End, there’s a reference to a cave in Nevada near an army base where a young Henry Creel first encountered something connected to the Upside Down. Is that the same cave?
Matt Duffer: Yeah. When we were working on the play with Kate Trefry, we had Henry’s backstory worked out. There was always a balance that we had to find in terms of how much we were going to put in the play. [The director] Stephen [Daldry] and [the produce] Sonia [Friedman] were always pushing for more and we were pushing back and saying, “Well, we have to wait to reveal that in the show.” You’ll see, especially as you reach the final episode, there’s more overlap with the play.
Ross Duffer: And, like, Max finds that “Oklahoma” poster, which people who haven’t seen the play are maybe like, “Why is Henry in ‘Oklahoma’?” But I think it’s nice for us to start to tie those two together.
Matt Duffer: But you absolutely do not have to have seen the play to understand. They’re Easter eggs more than anything.
Finally — and you may not want to touch this, so just going dive in — in the play, it felt like the real evil is the Mind Flayer. It’s what seduces Henry to accept what’s in the Upside Down into himself and ultimately what seems to have transformed him into Vecna once Eleven pushes him into the Upside Down. Are we barking up the right tree here?
Matt Duffer: You’re asking a question that will be answered in the final episode. The next spoiler talk we do, I’ll address it.
When Netflix drops the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things,” the audience will be bracing for emotional fallout, Hawkins-level chaos, and the show’s trademark blend of ’80s nostalgia and supernatural mayhem. But few people have as unique a view of the endgame as Sherman Augustus — the man behind Colonel Jack Sherman, the hard-charging military figure who stepped into the story in Season 4 and returns for the climactic final chapter.
Augustus, a former NFL player and martial-arts champion turned actor, spoke with me about practical effects vs. CGI, Colonel Sherman’s internal “come to Jesus” moment, and why he refuses to fully read ahead in the scripts. And right at the end, he drops what might be the most intriguing hint yet about where Eleven stands going into the series’ conclusion.
This is the kind of insider look Stranger Things fans will want before Volume 1 drops.
The Practical Effects of Stranger Things: “It’s Gnarly. Absolutely Gnarly.”
For a series that has spawned some of Netflix’s most iconic CGI creatures — the Mind Flayer, Vecna’s tendrils, the Demogorgon — Sherman Augustus surprised even longtime fans when he revealed just how much of it is done practically on set.
“The majority of the show is practical,” he said. “There’s a lot of CGI, of course, but if they can do it practical, they will.”
His major action sequence, known on set as “Max Z,” is described by Augustus as intense bordering on chaotic — the good kind of chaotic.
“It’s gnarly,” he repeated more than once. “You’ve got to pretend that plates are flying in the air, Demogorgons are coming through, things are blowing apart. But a lot of it is real. You’ve got people in suits portraying the Demogorgons. You’ve got stunt performers being thrown through the air by rigs, flipping between us. I had guys flying just inches from my face.”
Stranger Things has always taken pride in blending old-school filmmaking with modern visual effects, but hearing him describe stunt performers in full creature suits, flung across the room on Hong Kong harnesses, firing in every direction — it reinforces how much of the show’s visceral energy is built in-camera.
This show isn’t just pixels. It’s muscle, grit, and stunt teams earning every bruise.
Colonel Jack Sherman’s “Come to Jesus” Moment
At a previous press event, Augustus had teased three words that set off massive speculation in the fandom:
In our conversation, he leaned into that tease — but carefully, given the real-world presence of what he jokingly called “the Netflix ninjas.”
“We were talking about the character with Frank [director Shawn Levy], and Frank goes, ‘Yeah, you’re right — the Colonel has a come to Jesus moment.’”
Augustus lights up talking about it, because for a character who could easily be a one-note government bulldozer, the writers gave him a very real arc.
This isn’t a caricature of a military antagonist. It’s a man pushed to extremes who will confront something — or someone — that breaks him open.
The exact circumstances are under lock and key. But Augustus’ excitement says everything. There is a moment coming for Colonel Sherman that is human, not just tactical. The kind of moment Stranger Things uses to elevate supporting characters into fan favorites.
From NFL Locker Rooms to Hawkins: How Sherman Built the Colonel
Augustus is no stranger to physical roles, having starred in “Into the Badlands,” where he showcased martial arts skills and high-impact action. But the emotional architecture of Colonel Sherman came from an unexpected place — isolation.
“We were coming off the pandemic. I felt isolated. I felt like an outcast,” he said. “So I wanted to use that. When you get on set, everyone’s running here and there, and that feeling really helped me find the character.”
This personal approach gave his performance a grounded heaviness — the sense of a man who has spent too long carrying too much.
And unlike some method-driven actors, Augustus doesn’t stay locked in his character between takes.
“I don’t hold onto too many things,” he explained. “I want to be loose. Every take is different. I want to surprise myself. And once I have the behavior nailed down, the most important thing is having real moments with the other actors.”
He plays a rigid military commander, but he acts with fluidity, openness, and responsiveness.
The Final Season: “I Can’t. I Can’t Finish Reading This.”
Sherman Augustus didn’t watch Stranger Things religiously until he was cast. Then he binged it, and while prepping for Season 5, something unexpected happened: he had to stop himself from reading too far into the scripts.
“I would read some of it and go, ‘I can’t. I can’t finish it,’” he said. “Let me just get familiar enough for what I’m doing, and then I’m out. I don’t want to cheat it anymore.”
That’s not something actors often admit. But it tells you what level of storytelling the Duffer Brothers are bringing to the table.
“It’s so flush,” he emphasized. “They didn’t skimp on anything. Every character has their moment. Everyone. And there’s a lot of personal things happening outside the group, outside what’s going on.”
This complements everything we’ve heard from cast and crew: Season 5 is big, emotional, and intimate all at once.
On Great Finales — And How Stranger Things Ends
When asked where Stranger Things ranks among great TV endings — he referenced shows like “Justified” and “Ted Lasso” — Augustus didn’t hesitate.
“I think everyone’s going to really talk about this. They’re not going to be disappointed at all.”
That’s a confident statement from a man who admits he avoided reading too far ahead in the scripts. He felt the emotional weight of his scenes, the interconnectedness of the characters, and the meticulous care put into the journey’s end.
He didn’t spoil anything… at first.
But then he said something casual. Something that Stranger Things fans will latch onto.
The Eleven Hint: “Millie Now Is a Superhero… She Gets to Do It for Herself.”
There it was — a subtle but revealing clue.
Courtesy of Netflix
Eleven captured by the men in suits, but is her look one of fright or fight?
Talking about the evolution of Eleven’s powers and her role in Season 5, Augustus said:
“Millie now is a superhero, basically. She’s got these superpowers which Brenner and Owens were trying to cultivate and use. But again, she gets to do it for herself now — and for her folks that she loves and for the people of Hawkins.”
He didn’t say what she’s doing.
He didn’t say how far her powers evolve.
He didn’t say who she saves — or who she loses.
But he did say this: Season 5 is the first time Eleven’s power is fully hers. Not controlled. Not weaponized. Not manipulated. Hers.
For fans who have watched Eleven struggle with identity, autonomy, and trauma from the lab, this is more than character growth. It’s a thematic endpoint.
Eleven finally becomes the hero she chooses to be.
Volume Release Dates
Netflix is staggering the end of Stranger Things across three drops:
Volume 1: November 26 (4 episodes)
Volume 2: Christmas Day (3 episodes)
Volume 3: New Year’s Eve (final episode and limited theatrical release)
It’s the most ambitious scheduling the show has ever attempted — and it reinforces just how big this conclusion is expected to be.
The Last Word: Sherman Augustus, a Motor City Favorite
Before wrapping, Augustus answered the one question that proves he’s a real football guy: the Thanksgiving side-item draft.
“Pecan pie,” he said without hesitation. “You know it’ll hang around for a while, and you’re like… yeah, I’ll get on the bike today, but I’m going back for the rest of that pie.”
Sherman Augustus brings that same mix of discipline, humor, and grounded intensity to Colonel Jack Sherman. A role that could have been forgettable becomes lived-in, surprising, and essential.
He is one of the most intriguing pieces of Stranger Things’ final season — and based on this conversation, he knows a lot more than he’s allowed to say.
As previously reported, the two-hour series finale of the series – the last episode titled “The Rightside Up” — will premiere on Netflix and in more than 350 movie theaters on Dec. 31, starting at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET, playing through Jan. 1. This marks the first time an episode of a Netflix series will also be exhibited theatrically.
“This has been a dream of ours for a while,” Ross told me Thursday night at the world premiere of the series’ fifth and final season at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Netflix announced the plans just days after Variety published an interview with Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria in which she insisted the streamer had no plans to release “Stranger Things” in theaters. “A lot of people — a lot, a lot, a lot of people — have watched ‘Stranger Things’ on Netflix,” she said. “It has not suffered from lack of conversation or community or sharing or fandom. I think releasing it on Netflix is giving the fans what they want.”
Praising Bajaria for her “poker face,” Matt said, “Ross and I just folded. The truth is…this was in the works for a long time. Netflix came to us with the idea. It was their idea to have the finale on a separate day and we thought that was cool, specifically because we thought we could pitch this movie theater idea, which we had never pitched before, honestly.”
He continued, “It never really made sense to us because everyone will always ask about it. I’m like, ‘Well, it’s kind of not fun because no one’s in sync. People will have seen the episode, some people won’t have seen the episode, it’s not the same. This actually recreates and is a real movie moment because everyone’s experiencing it at the same time together. I think that’s what we’re excited about it and it’s the first time we had that opportunity.”
Star Millie Bobby Brown explained that she wore a black custom Rodarte gown to the premiere as an homage to the end of the series. “It’s for the funeral of the show,” she said. “This dress kind of embodies the darkness of the show this season. I’m really excited for everyone to see how dark it gets. I hate to say it because I say it every season, but this is definitely the darkest and the more intense season.”
See more photos from the “Stranger Things” premiere below.
Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Variety via Getty Images
Finn Wolfhard at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Variety via Getty Images
Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere After Party.
Variety via Getty Images
Caleb McLaughlin attends Netflix’s “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Getty Images for Netflix
Gaten Matarazzo, left, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, and Noah Schnapp attend Netflix’s “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Getty Images for Netflix
Noah Schnapp at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Michael Buckner
Sadie Sink at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Michael Buckner
Charlie Heaton at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Michael Buckner
Joe Keery and Maya Hawke at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
Michael Buckner
Nell Fisher at the “Stranger Things” Season 5 World Premiere.
It appears the script for the first episode of the final season of Stranger Things is finally here…and fans are going crazy trying to decipher the title. With so much left up in the air at Vol. 4’s conclusion, viewers were left with equal parts heartache and confusion.
Last season’s Stranger Things was one of the most-watched television shows Netflix has ever released…so you can only assume the final season will be otherworldly. Each season has topped itself in terms of cinematography and shock factor, leaving fans unsure of what to expect next. And not every ending has been happy…
On November 6, the show’s official Twitter feed tweeted a picture of the script titled: “Chapter One: The Crawl.” Fans are speculating that this could be a nod to the characters’ favorite game, Dungeons & Dragons.
Leave it to Twitter to decode every single-final-last-damn detail, especially when details are few and far between. One user reported that in “DND” terms, “the crawl” takes place in a labyrinth with fighting monsters, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure one might find. Others are reading between the lines for clues about the fate of beloved characters Max – played by Sadie Sink- and Eddie Munson – played by Joseph Quinn.
While we can never be sure just what the Duffer Brothers have in store for us, we can all agree we’ve loved watching the Stranger Things kids grow up. Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaetan Matarazzo, and Caleb McLaughlin’s lovable characters keep us super engaged.
Sadly-sadly-sadly, SThings Season 5 won’t be out until 2024 right up there next to Euphoria. Until then, I’m watching reality television like my life depends on it.
The fourth installment of “Stranger Things” became one of the most watched television seasonsNetflix ever released. Fans clamoring for the fifth and final season were finally thrown a bone on Sunday when the title for the hotly anticipated premiere episode was revealed online.
Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer are listed as the writers on the premiere, in keeping with prior seasons, according to Collider.
Warning: Spoilers for “Stranger Things” below!
Fans of the show will recall Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) vanquishing Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) during an explosive face-to-face in Season 4’s finale. Her friend Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) died a hero, while Max Mayfield’s (Sadie Sink) fate remains unknown.
While the episode left the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in rubble after a triumphant fight against creatures from the Upside Down dimension, it also saw Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) confirm that he was still connected to its reigning demon Vecna, according to E! News.
While Sunday’s tweet revealed very little about what’s next, “the crawl” might refer to a scenario from Dungeons & Dragons — a favorite game of the show’s protagonists — in which players have to navigate difficult mazes and dangerous traps.
Fans certainly had a torrent of questions for the Duffer brothers. Does Hawkins have a fighting chance? Will Max be saved? Is Eddie truly dead? While only those close to the show know the answers, Twitter users certainly had some theories.
On November 6, 1983 , Will Byers went missing in Hawkins, Indiana. The boy simply vanished. His friends were mystified. His mother in a panic. Nobody knew where Will had gone, and many suspected the worse. What nobody expected was that the boy had been taken by a monstrous Demogorgon into a mysterious and terrifying alternative plane called the Upside Down.
That date has since become Stranger Things Day, and on Stranger Things Day you can usually expect a tidbit of new information about the show, or some other fan service.
I completely forgot that yesterday was Stranger Things Day, so I’m a bit late to this news, but even if it’s just a tiny tidbit of new info about the next season, it’s still fun.
The first episode of Stranger Things 5 finally has an episode title, and it raises some interesting questions and inevitably will lead to plenty of fan theories and speculation.
The official Stranger Things Twitter account shared a picture of the first page of the screenplay for the very first episode of the show:
Chapter One: The Crawl, written by the Duffer Brothers, is the somewhat ominous sounding title for the Season 5 premiere.
Fans are speculating that the ‘crawl’ refers to dungeon-crawling, which you often do in Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games. In D&D, a dungeon crawl is where a band of adventurers heads down into some kind of cave or maze or dungeon and fights monsters and solves puzzles and springs traps and eventually fights some kind of boss before escaping with whatever loot and treasure they found along the way.
Of course, all the best titles for TV shows have a double (or triple!) meaning, and this could be the case with Stranger Things as well. Granted, many of the show’s past episode titles have been pretty straightforward (not much to glean from The Hellfire Club other than it’s the name of the D&D club Eddie ran—RIP—and the name of Stranger Things 4’s opening episode).
If this is about a dungeon crawl, we could see our heroes return to The Upside Down in the very first episode of the show, which the show’s creators say “is more really like Part 2 of Season 4.” That makes sense. There can’t really be a time-jump as some speculated, because the demonic world is spilling over into the real world in the Season 4 finale.
Filming of Stranger Things 5 begins in 2023, so you can add it to the list of shows—from House of the Dragon to Rings Of Power—not returning until at least 2024.
