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Netflix teases the return of its three biggest shows: ‘Welcome to 2025’

Two of the three most-watched Netflix shows will come to an end this year

Inga Parkel
in New York
Saturday 04 January 2025 14:36 GMT
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Stranger Things trailer

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Netflix has given fans a taste of what to expect this year.

To celebrate the first day of 2025, the streaming giant shared on X/Twitter an edit teasing the return of three of its most-watched shows: Squid Game, Wednesday and Stranger Things.

“Your 3 favorite shows are coming back this year. Welcome to 2025,” the caption read.

The clip opened with a shot of Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams before transitioning to the cast of Stranger Things, as a voiceover states: “It’s happening. Something is coming.”

A scene of Squid Game’s Front Man is then featured before the message: “In 2025, the 3 biggest shows ever will return,” flashes across the screen.

While an exact return date for each show has yet to be announced, subscribers can be assured that their favorite shows will be released soon enough.

Squid Game

The Korean language thriller, which became Netflix’s most-watched series ever following its 2021 debut, will return with its third and final season sometime this year.

The hit series, which sees hundreds of cash-strapped individuals compete in deadly games for a life-changing sum of money, released its second season on December 26. The show’s creator, writer and director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, has already given fans a glimpse of what they can expect to see in the forthcoming season.

Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun/Player 456 in ‘Squid Game’ season 2
Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun/Player 456 in ‘Squid Game’ season 2 (No Ju-han/Netflix)

Explaining that he initially intended to write the second season story across a span of about eight to nine episodes, Hwang told Variety that “once I finished the story, it came to over 10 episodes, which I thought was too long to contain in a single season.”

“So I wanted to have an adequate point where I could give closure as a second season and then move on with the third,” he shared.

Speaking about Squid Game’s lead character, Seong Gi-hun/Player 456 (Lee Jung-jae), and the obstacles he faced in season two, Hwang said the new season will pick up with him “having that sense of huge guilt and sense of failure weighing heavily on him.” “How is Gi-hun going to carry on his mission? That’s the story that’ll further unfold,” he added.

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Wednesday

Starring Jenna Ortega as the morbid, young Wednesday Addams, Wednesday surpassed Stranger Things to become Netflix’s most-streamed English language show when it premiered in 2022.

Jenna Ortega will return as Wednesday Addams in season two of ‘Wednesday’
Jenna Ortega will return as Wednesday Addams in season two of ‘Wednesday’ (Netflix)

Season two of the series — which follows the dark adventures of Wednesday as she seeks to master her emerging psychic abilities and solve the mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — will be “darker and more complex,” showrunners and executive producers Al Gough and Miles Millar, revealed.

“This season is going to be bigger and more twisted than you can ever imagine,” Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays Wednesday’s mom, Morticia Addams, additionally teased.

Stranger Things

Netflix’s original big-hit series, Stranger Things, is coming to an end after five successful seasons. The sci-fi show — led by Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo about a group of friends seeking answers to the paranormal mysteries plaguing their fictional Indiana town — was first released on the streamer in 2016.

‘Stranger Things’ will return this year with a fifth and final season
‘Stranger Things’ will return this year with a fifth and final season (Netflix/Stranger Things)

The show later went on to break Netflix streaming records before ultimately being bested by Wednesday.

The series’ creators Matt and Ross Duffer previously said they had written a 25-page document during season one that detailed the lore and mythology of the Upside Down.

“We were like, ‘We know what’s going on in the Upside Down, more or less, but we want it to be unknowable. We want it to be mysterious,’ ” Matt explained. “But they were like, ‘Yeah, but can you write it down?’ And so we wrote it all down.”

At Geeked Week Ross said the forthcoming season five will contain “the last remaining questions that are answered in that document.”

“And that’s really going to affect what Season 5 is about,” he added.

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