Is Stranger Things Season 5 a mashup of Seasons 1&4? Everything Explained!

After the news broke that Stranger Things Season 5 would be the end of the Netflix show as we know it, many fans got even more curious about the fate of the characters and of Hawkins itself.

The series had already been facing numerous issues regarding the actors' ages and how old their characters were, which eventually forced them to make several executive decisions to keep their acclaimed cast but still give the characters the story development they deserve, including a time jump for this final season.

As a result, the decision to end the show after five seasons was received as overwhelmingly positive as audiences currently can all agree long-drawn-out TV shows kept in the air for the sake of network's profits usually ruin previously great shows.

This final chapter in the saga will take after Season 1 and 4, as producers have commented on social media, which means characters will be picking up right after where Season 4 left off; In the season 4 finale, after the story built several complex narrative points to show the origins of Vecna, Eleven's journey to California and Hopper's developments in Russia, the characters were shown once more together and coming to Hawkins, currently captured, to defeat the evil forces of the Upside Down once and for all.

Season 1, however, was much more contrived as it was the first time we were being introduced to these now iconic characters. Eleven had almost no lines, though Millie Bobby Brown's performance captured the heart of fans, and overall, the gang was much more innocent, as they were still children back then, still only beginning to realize the evil that surrounded them.

Combining Season 1 and 4 is a recipe to celebrate an amalgamation of what Stranger Things has done across these seven years since the series first premiered back in 2016. At its core, the story can be seen as a coming of age supernatural saga, with characters finding their strengths and weakness in order to fight the various monster types that assaulted Hawkins, from Demogorgons to Vecna.

As many secrets and answers were revealed back in Season 4, Season 5 will need to have every plot point driven home, quite literally, back to Hawkins and back to the characters' first fights against the Upside Down.

The epic saga will premiere on Netflix late 2023.