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How big is the final season of Netflix hit Stranger Things? Fittingly, five times as big as the fourth season, according to one of the show’s stars — and it’s because the show was designed to keep growing with each successive outing, he explained.

David Harbour made the announcement at Tampa Bay Comic Convention 2025, where he appeared alongside series co-star Matthew Modine — but beyond talking about the scale of the season, he purposefully kept things vague.

“We shot it all last year,” Harbour told the audience about the much anticipated fifth season of the show. “It took a year to make for eight episodes, which is a very long time to shoot a television show. It's extremely cinematic. It's extremely big. Like, I think if you watched the show, and you’re a fan of the show, you’ve seen each season get progressively bigger. Season Four being the biggest — we had a lot of different locations: Out in the desert, on the helicopter and stuff, there was Hopper in that laboratory, the Demogorgon and stuff, all kinds of Creole Vecna stuff with this weird Upside Down world… And Season Five was, like, five times the size.”

Unsurprisingly, that’s an idea that prompted a lot of cheers from the audience.

“The scope and scale of the production was immense,” Harbour added, joking, “It almost killed all of us, but we are still around.”

Stranger Things Season 5 comes to Netflix with its first episodes Thanksgiving 2025. Read more from the David Harbour/Matthew Modine Tampa Bay panel right here.

As we all collectively wait for Stranger Things season 5, here's the keys to getting ready:

• How to watch Stranger Things in chronological or release order
• Getting to know the Stranger Things season 5 cast
• There needs to be more death in Stranger Things, says co-star Gaten Matarazzo
• The Stranger Things time jump between season 4 and 5 has been confirmed by Netflix - and it raises some serious questions
• "They land the plane," David Harbour describes the Stranger Things finale, which he calls its "best episode"