Stranger Things Season 5 Release Date Strategy Is a Rubik’s Cube of Nonsense

The nice thing about Netflix as an entertainment enterprise is that when it wants a project to feel big, it has the tools to make it feel very big. That is also, as it turns out, the not-so-nice thing about Netflix.

As part of its grand Tudum festival over the weekend, the streaming giant unveiled a treasure trove of new information regarding its hotly-anticipated TV series and movies including a trailer featuring a very stressed out Will Byers, the streamer revealed the release date for the final batch of episodes…though it’s more accurate to say “release dates.”

Stranger Things season 5 will premiere in three volumes spread out over three holidays near the end of 2025. The full breakdown looks like this:

– Volume 1 (Four Episodes) on Wednesday, November 26 (the day before Thanksgiving in the U.S.).
– Volume 2 (Three Episodes) on Thursday, December 25 (Christmas Day, obviously).
– Volume 3 (One Episode) on Wednesday, December 31 (New Year’s Eve).

Stranger Things is very important to Netflix (and to the history of streaming television overall) and the streamer undoubtedly wants to make a grand spectacle of its conclusion. Tying its arrival to the ultimate holidays on the 2025 calendar is a fine way to do so. One of can only imagine execs’ ears perking up when Stranger Things showrunners the Duffer Brothers reported progress on postproduction was moving quicker than anticipated and a 2025 release was a distinct possibility.

At the same time, however, isn’t this all … a bit much? Stranger Things season 5’s page on Netflix’s native Tudum content site has a countdown-to-launch as though the Hawkins kids are taking off for the moon. The page also puts the company’s powerful servers to work crafting drop-downs for the respective release times of each volume in every global market the show will be available in. Volumes 1, 2, and 3 will all drop at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on their respective premiere dates, which technically makes the final episode a 2026 release for much of the world.

This is not to say that Netflix being excited about one of its premier shows is a sin. Stranger Things has earned its extra marketing budget honestly and, in an era of increasingly stratified audience demographics, we could all use a communal blockbuster or two. It’s still bizarre to see a binge-centric streaming service once again accidentally recreate cable with a staggered release model. Fresh batches of serialized, yet self-contained content spread out over a predetermined schedule? Back in my day we called those episodes!

It’s true that Netflix has been experimenting with the “volumization” of its TV seasons for a while now. Stranger Things season 5 will indeed be preceded by Wednesday season 2 volume 1 on August 6 and Wednesday season 2 volume 2 on September 3. It’s notable, however, that the season volumes have been evolving to arrive more quickly. Previously, hits like Money Heist season 5 featured a three-month wait between volumes and Lucifer season 5 featured nearly a year. It’s almost as though the streamer’s all-powerful algorithm keeps creeping closer and closer to what was once the industry-accepted episodic approach.

Of course, the end of Stranger Things isn’t truly the end of Stranger Things with the series set to receive the full franchise treatment with a bevy of spinoffs. Perhaps one of those projects will get the weekly release strategy its forefather so clearly craved. If not, we’re gonna need to add some more holidays to the end of the calendar.