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'Stranger Things' to end with Season 5, Netflix reveals May & July premieres for two-part Season 4
The beginning of the end for Stranger Things arrives this summer.
It's been more than two years since we last saw the kids of Hawkins, Indiana, and their most recent battle against the forces of darkness in 1980s America. Now, at last, we're in the year of Stranger Things 4. We've known for some time that the much-anticipated fourth season of the hit Netflix series was coming soon, but today, we finally have not one, but two premiere dates.
Netflix revealed Thursday morning that Stranger Things 4 will arrive this summer in two "volumes," spreading out the planned nine episode run across three months. Season 4, Volume 1 will premiere on May 27, while Season 4, Volume 2 will arrive on July 1, giving viewers both Memorial Day and the Fourth of July to set aside for binge watching. In a letter to fans, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer explained the split release model by reminding us that Stranger Things 4 is set to be the biggest season yet... by quite a margin.
"With nine scripts, over eight-hundred pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a runtime nearly twice the length of any previous season, Stranger Things 4 was the most challenging season yet, but also the most rewarding one," the Duffers wrote.
But the split release wasn't the only major news out of the Duffers' announcement on Thursday. They also revealed, after years of contemplating the endgame for the show, that the upcoming fifth season will be the end of the main Hawkins saga that launched back in 2016.
"Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things," the Duffers wrote. "At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but — as you'll soon see for yourselves — we are now hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; Season 5 will be the last."
But even that's not the extent of the reveals here, as the brothers also teased that even as the main series ends, the world of Stranger Things remains open for new stories in the form of spinoffs.
"There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes."
You can check out the entire letter from the Duffers, as well as several new posters for Stranger Things 4, in the gallery below.
Set six months after the events of Stranger Things 3, the fourth season will find the friends of Hawkins separated for the first time, dealing with the challenges of high school life, and of course, batting new horrors and new mysteries that could finally solve the problem of the Upside Down once and for all.
Stranger Things returns to Netflix in May.
