The creators of Stranger Things have offered some insight into the plot developments in the next batch of episodes, set to be released over Christmas.
Netflix’s hit sci-fi series returned for its fifth and final season earlier this week, releasing the first four episodes in a single batch as “Volume One”.
Two more volumes will be released over the coming weeks, with three episodes arriving on Boxing Day and a feature-length finale dropping on Netflix in the early hours of New Year’s Day (UK time).
Brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, who created the series, told Deadline that the forthcoming episodes would continue Holly Wheeler’s (Nell Fisher) increased role in the series, and would dig into the kidnapping of young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp).
Holly Wheeler’s bigger role this season will likely help with questions we still have about The Upside Down, as well as the importance of Will’s disappearance.
“Especially as we get into Volume 2, we start to answer more and more why Will was kidnapped and how it ties in with Holly and all of this. Everything sort of comes full circle,” said Matt.
Ross explained that the next volume would also finally provide details about the Upside Down, Stranger Things’s supernatural netherworld, “pretty early on”.
“That really is a Volume Two thing, where we really get into the Upside Down, and we explain what it is,” he said. “Again, this is something that has been planned for 10 years now, and it just now, obviously is the time to reveal it.”
Schnapp also explained that the next episodes would delve into the supernatural powers his character displayed in one of Volume One’s most dramatic moments.
“It was originally supposed to work in the same way that Eleven’s powers do because, as you read the scripts in Volume Two, it comes in a different way than hers,” he said. “So making sure that the physicality of that shows, that it works different.
“For Will, we start to learn the parallels between Will and Vecna, and it almost felt very Harry Potter to me that I had to go back and re-watch the movies, because the Harry Potter-Voldemort relationship felt very close to Will and Vecna,” he continued. “So just kind of exploring those parallels and what that means.”
Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays the villainous Vecna, also weighed in on what fans could expect from the next episodes.
“They should feel like what they’re doing is holding onto their chairs going, ‘No, no, no,’ that’s how I want them to feel, particularly with what I’m up to,” he said. “I think Volume One is, it’s funny, because it’s like, I want to call it a setup, but it is an explosive setup to what continues to happen in Volume Two and subsequently [the finale].”
The Duffer brothers also teased other features of the forthcoming batch of episodes, including “some really cool, but very different musical moments”, the return of Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), and insight into the motives of Linda Hamilton’s new character, Dr Kay.
Stranger Things is available to stream on Netflix now.
Stranger Things fans shipping ‘Byler’ dealt major blow in season 5
Stranger Things reviews say ‘joyless’ show is in state of ‘arrested development’
The two Stranger Things characters who were almost killed off
Stranger Things 5 viewers call episode 4 ending ‘wildest’ in years
I’m a Celeb 2025 live: Live trial episode returns after six years
Tyler West opens up on ‘one of the most horrific moments’ of his life
