Stranger Things fans get the season 5 release update they've been waiting for

The wait for new seasons of Stranger Things is always unexpectedly, but appropriately long. The show is perhaps the most cinematic on streaming television (or any kind of television for that matter), so it's not too surprising that they take quite a while to put together. They are essentially multi-episode movies, after all.

Even so, the waits for seasons 4 and 5 have been shockingly long. While the more ambitious, bigger budget, longer episode approach to those seasons have been somewhat responsible for that, the real reasons for the delays were the outside factors, as the pandemic delayed season 4's production and the SAG and WGA strikes have now delayed season 5.

But fans have a reason to celebrate because, in spite of concerns about an even longer wait for the upcoming fifth and final season, Netflix has made an official announcement confirming that this won't be the case.

Netflix confirms Stranger Things season 5 is coming in 2025

Netflix has confirmed that Stranger Things season 5 will be premiering on the streaming service no later than 2025. Up until this point the season had been expected to premiere next year but this is the first official confirmation that it is still set to come out then. And it came from Netflix's own CEO Ted Sarandos.

Speaking at the streamer's Q2 earnings call, Sarandos spoke about some of the shows fans can expect to see from now through the end of 2025, namedropping Stranger Things' final season while he was at it:

"Looking forward through 2025, you’ve got new seasons of Wednesday, Stranger Things, The Night Agent, and we’re in production on One Piece, so there’s a ton of excitement there just in our series"

The season was once meant to premiere in 2024 but that became impossible when the strikes in Hollywood prevented production from beginning when it was aiming to. Deadline subsequently reported that the streamer was aiming for a 2025 release, but Netflix had yet to make any official announcement as to whether that was the case or not. Now, they finally have.

While fans would love an actual premiere date for the show's final season, we're still too far out for that yet. If production on season 5 is just halfway through, it will likely carry on through the remainder of the year. And given the scope that a season of Stranger Things entails, it will require a lot of post-production, too.

Maya Hawke, who plays Robin on the show, recently revealed on Penn Badgley's Podcrushed Podcast that each episode is "very long" and described them as "eight movies". So yeah, a long post-production period is likely, especially for a show of this caliber that would require a ton of special effects and CGI.

Taking all of that into account, we're probably looking at a potential mid 2025 release window, with a huge possibility that it will premiere in fall instead (emulating the second season, which is the only one to do so). The good news is that these recent comments from Sarandos confirm that it won't be any later than that, as it sounds like it is on track to hold its rumored 2025 release date.

Yes, there is still going to be a long wait for Stranger Things season 5, but it isn't going to get any longer; and that's exactly the kind of promising update we like to hear right now. We know Eleven, Mike, Joyce, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Steve, Nancy, Jonathan and the rest of our Hawkins favorites will be back next year, and that's worth celebrating!