Stranger Things Returns — Watch the First Five Minutes of Season 5 Now

Image: Netflix

Netflix has released the opening scene from the premiere of Stranger Things season 5, which is due to begin streaming later this month. The clip runs just under five minutes and is dense with plot clues — a compact refresher for viewers returning to Hawkins after the more-than-three-year gap since season 4.

The sequence unfolds in the Upside Down on November 12, 1983. It’s a flashback to a young Will Byers hiding in Castle Byers, the stick-built fort from earlier seasons, quietly singing The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” The eerie calm breaks when a Demogorgon appears; Will, armed with a rifle, fires toward the creature’s head and manages a fleeting escape. He sprints, scales a tree and makes a slow-motion leap amid crackling red lightning — only to come up short and be seized.

The Demogorgon delivers Will into Vecna’s lair, where tendrils force a mysterious liquid into his mouth. Vecna intones, “At long last, we can begin,” and adds, “You and I, we are going to do such beautiful things together, William. Such beautiful things.” The exchange implies that Vecna’s designs predate the latest events of the series and that Will is once again central to whatever scheme is unfolding.

Season 5 opens in the autumn of 1987, approaching the anniversary of Will’s disappearance in season 1 — a narrative choice that brings the story full circle. The Upside Down is expanding over Hawkins, and the military presence has effectively sealed off the town, as shown in the full trailer released ahead of Halloween.

The first four episodes of Stranger Things season 5 will debut on Netflix on Nov. 26, with three additional episodes arriving on Christmas and the finale scheduled for New Year’s Eve.

Source: Polygon