The wait for the Stranger Things 5 release just reached a new embarrassing milestone.
It has been nearly three years since fans last heard from the Stranger Things franchise, with Season 4 of the hit Netflix series debuting its finale in July 2022.
However, the wait will supposedly be worth it. Season 5 has been described as "eight blockbuster movies" rather than eight episodes of big-budget TV.
Stranger Things 5 Wait Crosses Major Milestone
Stranger Things 5 just crossed a significant milestone in its lead-up to release, and it is not one fans will be enthused about.
As of February 20, 2025, the beloved streaming sci-fi series will have officially crossed 1,000 days since its last major seasonal release (Season 4 wrapped up on July 1, 2022).
See below for a comparison of breaks between Stranger Things seasons:
- Stranger Things Seasons 1 and 2: 469 days
- Stranger Things Seasons 2 and 3: 615 days
- Stranger Things Seasons 3 and 4: 1,058 days
This is not quite the longest wait between seasons for the series—that honor goes to the gap between Seasons 3 and 4 (1,058 days); however, seeing as it remains unlikely that Season 5 will be released in the next two months, one can assume it will cross that mark and then some.
The wait between Seasons 4 and 5 has been well documented. The series' lengthy production schedule was victim to the Hollywood actors' and writers' strikes of 2023, which slightly pushed its release later than fans had initially expected (read more about why Stranger Things 5 is taking so long here).
When Can Fans Expect Stranger Things 5? Season 5 Release Projections
As Stranger Things 5 approaches (and likely eclipses) the record for the longest wait between seasons of the hit Netflix original, the show's eventual return will loom large in fans' minds.
Thankfully, it seems as though the wait may finally end relatively soon.
In November 2024, the hit sci-fi series appeared in a Netflix earnings report, being teased as one of the streamer's "biggest shows" of 2025:
"So looking into 2025, you've got new seasons of our biggest shows: 'Wednesday,' 'Squid Games,' 'Stranger Things,' on top of new shows from Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy, a new 'Knives Out' film from Ryan Johnson, Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein,' even the return of 'Happy Gilmore.' So we could not be more excited about where we sit right now and where we're heading."
This finally confirmed that fans could expect Stranger Things Season 5 in 2025 for the series' final episodes after years of wondering where and when the show would return.
According to the latest release projections, the Stranger Things 5 release window is sometime in October and/or November 2025.
This is in line with rumors that Netflix was priming the series as one of its biggest titles of the latter half of the year, potentially pointing to this fall being all about Stranger Things on the streaming platform.
If that particular release estimate is correct, fans can expect the days between seasons to cross well into the 1,200s.
Thankfully, with several other big-name titles set to return to Netflix, fans will have plenty to tide them over while they wait for Stranger Things Season 5.
Stranger Things 5 is expected sometime later this year.
