Stranger Things has officially closed the door on Hawkins and the Upside Down.
Netflix’s mega-hit sci-fi saga from the Duffer Brothers released its supersized final episode on New Year’s Eve to record-breaking viewership for the streamer and an estimated $20-$25 million in theater chain revenue.
Creators Matt and Ross Duffer put much care into sticking the landing after a decade and five seasons (the last of which released in three parts over the 2025 holidays). The Duffers, who co-directed the finale, “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up,” consulted all of their actors for input on their endings, used red hard-to-read scripts and limited distribution in order to keep the ending a surprise outside of the cast and crew inner circle, and they even included an Easter egg in the series finale to tease where the Stranger Things franchise will go in the near future.
They also made it clear to The Hollywood Reporter that the final shot of the Wheelers’ basement door closing meant that this main story with this current cast is over, for good. “Mike’s [Finn Wolfhard] closing the basement door. We’re closing the door on the story. That’s one reason we had the closing credits the way we did, because it was a way of saying: ‘This is finite. This is the end of their story. It’s the end of the story of Mike and Eleven and Joyce [Winona Ryder] and Hopper,’” said Matt Duffer. “So, no, there’s no plan or intention to [revisit] the story because it’s a coming-of age story. Ultimately, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the show always was. When he closes the door to the basement, he’s closing the door on his childhood and he’s moving onto adulthood.”
So, why have fans been speculating that Stranger Things, the flagship series — which the producing team refers to as the “mothership” — isn’t really over? An online theory dubbed “Conformity Gate” has gone viral from fans speculating that the Duffer Brothers and Netflix have a “bonus episode” set for a surprise drop on Wednesday. The theory stemmed from fans suggesting the ending was actually an illusion created by villain Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), with the “real” ending still forthcoming.
While Netflix and/or the creators have not officially commented since the theory went viral — which has only fueled the theory more — The Hollywood Reporter has bad news: There is no bonus episode.
The show’s official bios on Instagram and TikTok clearly read that “All episodes of Stranger Things are now playing.” In addition, the creators and cast have given many interviews — including to THR — about the show officially ending.
In their chat with THR about the series finale, the Duffer brothers said the audiences in the finale theater they attended reacted “exactly how they wanted them to” and that they and their actors feel “really good” with how they ended the show. The Duffers have always known what the final scene of the series would be and have used it as their North Star throughout making the entire series.
Of that moment (spoiler alert!)— when the teen cast played by Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb Mclaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo and Sadie Sink put away their Dungeons & Dragons books in a passing-of-the-torch scene — Matt Duffer told THR: “I can’t imagine doing it any other way, but also, that’s not them acting. When they’re putting away their books and walking away, that’s them saying goodbye to the show. So, that’s the most emotional and heartbreaking shot we ever did on the show.”
The ensemble also shared their emotional reactions to filming each of their final scenes, elaborating on how they have become “core memories,” calling their endings “perfect.” Noah Schnapp told THR, “They really left nothing more to be told.”
“As far as the finale is concerned, the most important thing to us is that we needed it to work and feel really great to me and Ross, who’ve been writing the show for 10 years. But we needed it to work and resonate with the actors because they’ve been living and breathing these characters better than anybody,” Matt Duffer added to THR. “And the fact that it did resonate as deeply and that they’re all as happy as they are means more to us than anything.”
There are, however, two loose threads. But only one of them points to where the franchise is going next.
The major looming question in the series finale (spoiler!) revolved around Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) fate, and if she really sacrificed herself or faked her death, as Mike (Wolfhard) posited at the end of the series. The Duffers intentionally are not confirming either way, saying their intention is to leave it open ended.
“The characters can’t know and the audience can’t know because then it puts Eleven in danger and her sacrifice was for nothing,” Matt Duffer told THR. “So there’s a point in not knowing. The boys obviously choose to believe. I’m not sure what the majority of people are thinking, but dipping my toes a little bit into social media, it seems like people are choosing to believe and are going to Mike Wheeler route.”
That doesn’t have to stop the cast from speculating (Sink said on The Tonight Show that she thinks Eleven is dead). But the creators actually wanted to point viewers in another, new direction: the Henry Creel rock.
“There’s lingering questions about the rock and where the rock came from and the scientist and all of that,” Matt Duffer told THR of the series finale’s explanation of how Vecna/Henry Creel (Bower) got his powers when he was younger in the cave.
That question will, in fact, connect with the forthcoming live-action spinoff that the Duffers are currently developing.
“We had said that there is something in the finale that is going to connect to the spinoff. The spinoff is not about rocks or mining the rocks, but I would say that’s the loose end that’s not tied up that will be tied up,” added Matt Duffer. “But ultimately, and we have said this before, but I guess to reiterate, [the live-action spinoff] is an entirely new mythology. This spinoff does connect and will answer some of the lingering questions. It’s not specifically about the Mind Flayer or the Upside Down, but hopefully it provides some answers to at least those lingering questions related to Henry’s memory.”
Ross Duffer had previously told THR that he and his brother were “very early days” on the live-action spinoff. Once again, confirming “this is the end of the story for these characters of Hawkins, for the Upside Down” and that the spinoff will be in “a different decade and different characters, but of course, still connected to the Stranger Things universe. It’s an idea we’ve had for years and something we’re just really excited and passionate about. We won’t be showrunning that show, but we’ll be heavily involved. So, as the new year comes around, we’re going to start spending more time on that.”
First up in the Stranger Things universe will be the animated spinoff for Netflix, called Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, coming in 2026 (with a premiere date yet to be announced). The series takes place between season two and three of Stranger Things.
Executive producer Shawn Levy, who has been intricately involved in both the flagship and the animated series, teased the following to THR about the animated series: “You’re not getting a watered-down continuation of the show you’ve watched and loved. You’re getting a different tone, a different visual style. It’s filling in blanks of mythology and timeline that you’ve never gotten in what we call ‘the mothership,’ the original show. The Duffers loved a certain style of ‘80s and ‘90s all-family audience animation and cartoons, and this show is made in the spirit of that. So it’s not ‘Stranger Things, but animated,’ it’s very much its own tone and style.”
Eric Robles is showruning the animated show from Flying Bark Productions. Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer, along with Hilary Leavitt, via Upside Down Pictures; Levy via 21 Laps; Dan Cohen will exec produce.
The voice cast includes Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Ej (Elisha) Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Ben Plessala as Will and Brett Gipson as Hopper. Additional voice castmembers include Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo and Lou Diamond Phillips.
“The idea was kind of to evoke a feeling of an ’80s cartoon,” Matt Duffer said in the announcement. “What we’ve been able to capture is the magic of Hawkins in a new way,” Robles added of the series.
Meanwhile, the Henry Creel-focused Stranger Things: The First Shadow continues to run on Broadway, with no closing date yet announced. The play, written by Kate Trefry and executive produced by the Duffer Brothers, came to New York after opening in London’s West End in December 2023 and brings an original story to the stage, while also tying into the mythology of the streaming series.
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