Stranger Things 5: What really happens in the first five minutes of season finale? Netflix drops terrifying first look inside the Upside Down ahead of November 26 release

The highly anticipated final season of Netflix’s cult hit series, Stranger Things, returns with a bold and unsettling first act: the first five minutes hurl viewers straight back to the events of November 12, 1983, and set the tone for what promises to be a dramatic closing chapter.

The scene revisits 1983, showing Will Byers alone in the Upside Down, harking back to the night Hawkins first sensed that something was terribly wrong. The season doesn’t pick up where Season 4 left off; instead, it starts in the Upside Down, in the same chilling, shadowy space that first trapped Will.

‘The Crawl’, the premiere episode, revisits six days after Will Byers vanished, per Netflix’s Tudum. Noah Schnapp returns as 12-year-old Will, isolated in the Upside Down version of Castle Byers.


Visibly exhausted and terrified, Will quietly sings ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go,’ the song first introduced to him by his brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) in Season 1.

A menacing Demogorgon lurks just outside, forcing Will to flee through the forest and scramble up a tree. The creature quickly catches him, dragging him into Vecna’s decaying lair, its eerie atmosphere intensified by flashes of red lightning overhead.

Vecna steps out of the shadows, his haunting presence immediately heightening the terror. Will is overpowered as Vecna murmurs, ‘At long last, we can begin,’ before forcing a vine into his mouth and running a clawed hand across his forehead. ‘You and I, we’re going to do such beautiful things together,’ he says.

Stranger Things Season 5 release date

Netflix has revealed that the final season of Stranger Things will premiere on November 26, 2025, with Volume 1 of Season 5 launching globally at 5 PM PT.

Series co-creator Matt Duffer emphasized the stakes this season, noting, “Nothing in Hawkins is normal anymore… their movement is restricted, and there are Big Brother cameras everywhere. So not only are they active, their everyday, normal lives are anything but.”

Fans can also expect a deeper dive into the Upside Down. “The last remaining questions that are answered in that document, we’ve punted a couple of those to have some big reveals in Season 5,” Ross Duffer explained. “And that’s really going to affect what Season 5 is about.”