Stranger Things theatrical release has been in the works since February: 'Everyone had to play su...

The Duffer Brothers set the record straight on the theater rollout for the series finale. Stranger Things theatrical release has been in the works since Februar

The Duffer Brothers set the record straight on the theater rollout for the series finale.

Stranger Things theatrical release has been in the works since February: 'Everyone had to play super coy'

The Duffer Brothers set the record straight on the theater rollout for the series finale.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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October 30, 2025 11:03 a.m. ET

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Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) holds court on 'Stranger Things 5'. Credit:

The Duffer Brothers set the record straight on the *Stranger Things* theatrical release.

Netflix announced last week that the two-hour series finale will screen in movie theaters alongside a streaming premiere on New Year's Eve. However, Bela Bajaria, Netflix's chief creative officer, made comments to *Variety* in a story published days earlier that shot down the possibility of such a thing coming together.

So did all this come through in a matter of days, like some fans believe? No. Matt and Ross Duffer, the series creators, confirm to ** that plans have secretly been in the works for months.

"The way you know we're telling the truth here, by the way, is no way within the timeframe of that *Variety* article could we have then organized a theatrical release," Matt remarks.

Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, and Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson on 'Stranger Things 5'.

Courtesy of Netflix

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Netflix will release the eight-episode *Stranger Things* final season in three parts. The first four, collected as Volume 1, will premiere on Netflix this Nov. 26. Volume 2, consisting of the next three episodes, will arrive on the streaming platform Christmas Day. Then the series finale will drop by itself on Netflix New Year's Eve, as well as in more than 350 theater locations across the U.S. and Canada, beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

"I know we've talked about the theatrical experience, but Ross and I never asked Netflix to do it because it just never really made sense to me. It only is cool if everyone's experiencing it for the first time together," Matt says. "So when Netflix came to us with the idea of having the finale premiere on its own, then that was when we suggested the idea of doing it theatrically because it would really function like a movie."

Ross notes, "This was all the way back in February. So it's been in the works for a while."

Matt adds, "It was frustrating because everyone had to play super coy for a long time because they were still ironing out all the details with the theaters. So eventually, I was like, 'Can we please just announce this so I can stop dodging this question?'"

Noah Schnapp's Will comes face to face with Jamie Campbell Bower's Vecna on 'Stranger Things 5'.

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*Stranger Things* season 5 will pick up the story in the fall of 1987 at a time when the military has placed the entire town of Hawkins under military quarantine over the rifts that emerged. Led by Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), they're also hunting to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), seeing her as a weapon to be acquired.

Meanwhile, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) has since vanished, and the gang is doing everything they can to track down his location.

The Duffers are admittedly pumped about the theatrical release for the series finale, something they've been wanting for quite some time.

"We've had other finale episodes screen theatrically in a few theaters, but it's not as fun because everyone's already seen the episode," Matt says. "So this is something I'm really excited for."

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Source: "AOL TV"

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