Popverse's top stories of the day

• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Watch: Dune: Prophecy's Desmond Hart explained: His secret identity, his past, and his possible future [SPOILERS]
• Dune: Prophecy's Desmond Hart explained: His secret identity, his past, and his possible future [SPOILERS]

Stranger Things continues to be one of the biggest titles in the Netflix library, so a lot is riding on season five of the show to close out the story in a satisfying way. Thanks to a string of Hollywood strikes and Netflix’s surprisingly slow production process, we’ve already had to wait nearly two years for the final season to go into production. It looks like we’ll have to wait quite a bit longer before we find out the Stranger Things season five release date.

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things didn’t start filming until early 2024, thanks largely to Hollywood being largely shut down for most of 2023. However, this season looks like it will, understandably, be a bit bigger than previous ones, with a longer filming process. That’s according to star Millie Bobby Brown.

While on the UK’s The Jonathan Ross Show in early March 2024, Brown was careful not to let any spoilers slip. She did, however, mention that they had another nine months of filming left for Stranger Things season five, which would imply that they won’t finish filming until the last few months of 2024.

What does that tell us about the Stranger Things season five release date? We know that the previous seasons of the Netflix hit spent between five and eight months in post-production. We would suspect they this season will lean on the longer side to allow for more visual effects in the battle against the Upside Down, so Stranger Things season five probably won’t come out until at least July 2025, and that is if they move to immediately release the new season.

If there are any delays to production due to injury or just something unexpected happening, we could see it being closer to Halloween 2025 before Stranger Things season five is finally released. Which could be quite appropriate considering the show’s horror pedigree. Not that we think Netflix will delay the finale very long – when it finally comes out it is almost guaranteed to be the biggest show of the year for the streamer.

As we all collectively wait for Stranger Things season 5, here's the keys to getting ready:

• How to watch Stranger Things in chronological or release order
• Getting to know the Stranger Things season 5 cast
• There needs to be more death in Stranger Things, says co-star Gaten Matarazzo
• The Stranger Things time jump between season 4 and 5 has been confirmed by Netflix - and it raises some serious questions
• "They land the plane," David Harbour describes the Stranger Things finale, which he calls its "best episode"