Stranger Things reveals cast photo for fifth season as show goes back into production

Cast reunited following the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes

Netflix has announced that production for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is officially underway.

Sharing a photograph of the cast to Twitter on Monday (8 January), the steaming service wrote: “This is a code red. Stranger Things 5 production has officially begun!”

The photo includes the original cast, such as Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Cara Buono, Joe Keery, Amybeth McNulty, Gaten Matarazzo and Charlie Heaton. They will be joined by new cast member The Terminator’s Linda Hamilton, who Netflix announced would be appearing in season five in a role that has not yet been disclosed.

“I don’t know how to be a fangirl and an actress at the same time,” she said during her video announcement at Tudum. “I’m gonna work on that.”

While the series creators the Duffer Brothers announced in early 2022 that the show would conclude with a fifth season on Netflix, production was halted due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes for approximately seven months in 2023.

The ‘Stranger Things’ cast (Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix)

“Writing does not stop when filming begins,” Matt and Ross Duffer wrote during the strikes last May. “While we’re excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then—over and out. #wgastrong.”

The new series of the Eighties sci-fi horror drama is expected to air in 2025, though a release date is still unconfirmed.

While this will be the end of the show, the legacy of the series will live on. In December, the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow opened in London’s West End, set in the 1950s and exploring the backstory of season four’s emerging villain, Henry Creel.

In The Independent’s four-star review of the West End production, Alice Saville writes: “We’re on familiar territory for anyone who’s watched a bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Scooby-Doo: high school shenanigans colliding with supernatural chills as a gang of kids tries to make sense of creepy goings-on in their neighbourhood.”

“Some of the special effects are magical, some have a naff B-movie gruesomeness to them (spoiler alert: if pet death is a dealbreaker, this isn’t the show for you). But for Stranger Things fans, this periodic schlockiness is all part of the show’s knowingly retro charm – and its old-school, bombastic thrills should get brand new audiences flocking to the West End.”