'Stranger Things' Season 5 Fan Theories

Warning: Spoilers ahead. Stranger Things fans, are you doing OK? Season 4 volume 1 and 2 have officially premiered and it is going to take some time to process everything that’s happened — and lots of viewers are already theorizing about what will happen next. Don’t worry, we gathered all of the season 5 fan theories so you don’t have to!

It was revealed in April 2022 that season 5 will be the last Stranger Things season ever. The Duffer Brothers, cocreators of the show, spoke about season 5 during a July 2021 interview on “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. They also revealed that they expect the series finale to be “at least two hours.”

“The only reason we don’t expect it to be as long is because if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp-up before our kids really get drawn into the supernatural mystery,” Matt Duffer revealed. “You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, what they’re struggling with, adapting to high school, and so forth. Steve’s trying to find a date, all of that. None of that obviously is going to be occurring in the first two episodes of [Season 5].”

“For the first time ever, we don’t wrap things up at the end of [Season] 4, so it’s going to be moving,” Matt continued. “I don’t know that it’s going to be going 100 miles an hour at the start of 5, but it’s going to be moving pretty fast. Characters are already going to be in action. They’re already going to have a goal and a drive, and I think that’s going to carve out at least a couple hours and make this season feel really different.”

They also revealed that the OG Hawkins squad will reunite for season 5. “We wanna go back to a lot of the things we did in Season 1,” Matt said. “A lot of the original groupings and pairings that we had in season 1 – there’s something nice about coming full circle.”

Ross Duffer added, “While a lot of season 5 is actually pretty blurry, the last 30 minutes of it are pretty clear in our heads. So if we can make the journey entertaining, I think that we have an end that will hopefully satisfy. You can’t satisfy everyone, but the hope is that it’s something that feels right for this story.”

Well, while we await the final season of Stranger Things, scroll through our gallery for all of the strangest fan theories — because there’s a lot!

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‘The Crawl’

The Stranger Things Twitter account revealed on November 5, 2022, that the title of season 5’s first episode is Chapter One: The Crawl. The title immediately had fans heads spinning with theories, as a “dungeon crawl” in Dungeons & Dragons terms is when heroes navigate a labyrinth environment.

One person shared their theory on Twitter, writing, “My quick two cents: since a dungeon crawl is basically a short campaign where you have to escape from monsters in a maze/dungeon, we might get to see how the Hawkins gang made it out of the upside down/what happened during the 2-day skip. we might get glimpses of (Kas) Eddie [Munson].”

Other theorists wondered whether Stranger Things creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, could be referencing a lyric from Metallica’s song, “Master Of Puppets,” which Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) played (quite epically) in season 4. The lyric goes: “Come crawling faster / come obey your master,” which many hoped was a clue that the popular character could return.

Vecna’s Second In Command

Spoilers ahead. As Eddie Munson dies in the Upside Down in season 4, many fans believe he might make a return, not as a hero, but as a villain and Vecna’s second in command. The theory even got a nod of approval from Millie Bobby Brown herself! “I mean, it’s a good fan theory,” Millie told Entertainment Tonight in October 2022.

Max’s Fate

The end of season 4 left Max in rough shape: blind, brain-dead, and nearly every bone broken in her body. While it’s obvious Eleven will have to do some psychic heavy lifting to free Max’s soul, some fans on Reddit have theorized that Eleven will have to find Max’s soul in Vecna’s very own mind.

User u/ezra88 said, “When he killed all the kids at the lab, [Henry] literally said, ‘They aren’t gone, Eleven, they are right here, with me,’ as he tapped his head. So my guess is that yes, El will have to go there and grab Max.” Interesting!

Eddie Is Alive

Everyone’s new favorite Stranger Things character died with a heroic end, but we still can’t help but think it’s not the last time we’ll see Eddie Munson. Stranger Things is known for bringing characters back from the dead!

Fans think it might be possible that Eddie comes back as something more … vampiric. He was bitten by bats and left in the Upside Down, after all! Also, during the Hellfire’s D&D battle in season 4 episode 1, it’s revealed that Vecna returned after he was thought to be killed by Kas, who is a vampire warrior. Kas is obviously supposed to represent Eddie, and we know the Duffer Brothers love their foreshadowing, so maybe Eddie makes a heroic, vampire-esque return!

Hawkins Battleground

Reddit user u/nexuspatriot suggests that Hawkins will become a huge battleground in season 5. “The U.S. government quarantines Hawkins, and begins to deploy military forces to combat The Upside Down. Enter Sullivan. Realizing his hubris almost doomed civilization with wanting to kill Eleven, he seeks out Owens’ help in finding her. Owens says they’re gonna need a lot more than just her. CIA is deployed to track down all surviving subjects of MKUltra. The militaries of the world led by Eleven and other experiments begin a full invasion of the Upside Down.”

Everything Is Fake?

Matt and Ross actually outright denied the popular theory that all of the events so far have actually been a game of Dungeons & Dragons — meaning, nothing we’ve seen is real and just a game between the teenaged cast members.
When asked asked about this theory by Metro UK in December 2023, the duo apparently “erupted into jovial giggles” before Matt joked,”That is correct. That is the ending…. No.”
However, Ross revealed that that theory will definitely not be happening in season 5″That would be the equivalent of, ‘That’s all a dream.’ No, I assure you that is not how we’re going to end the show,” he assured.
The co-creator added, “We’ve known where we’ve been going for a while. And we feel comfortable with it; hopefully, it satisfies everyone. We’ll see.”

OMGAll of the Craziest ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Fan Theories