Stranger Things 5 is no longer Netflix’s reigning champion. The beloved sci-fi hit has been dethroned by a series that should have never been made.

"It's crazy to see what all of us looked like when we first started,” star Gaten Matarazzo told TODAY in 2022. The Netflix hit premiered nine years ago.

Stranger Things Season 5 Part 2 is set to release right after Christmas, and while the rest of the story of Netflix’s hit show is a mystery, we already know how one project will serve as a key to understanding more about the show.

It’s been three and a half years since the most recent season of “Stranger Things” kicked off in May 2022. The first episode of the hit series’ fifth and final installment — delayed by dual Hollywood strikes and the mounting production value of a show that’s ballooned from surprise breakout to blockbuster franchise — opens in the fall of 1987.

Unraveling the enigma of Vecna's past, a haunting play casts doubt on everything we thought we knew. Is this the key to Hawkins' darkest secrets?

Stranger Things Season 5 starts throwing clues at us from the very first episode, so if you watched the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, things probably clicked a lot faster for you.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a theatrical prequel to Stranger Things, which explores the backstory of Henry Creel/Vecna. It debuted in London's West End in 2023 and New York's Broadway in 2025. While this was explored in season 4, the final season of Stranger Things goes even further into Henry/Vecna's past, lore, and fears.

The last episode of Stranger Things 5 will have a runtime of 2 hours and 5 minutes. That’s right, you’ll have a movie’s worth of runway to say goodbye to all your favorites. ( Should they live that long.