The saga of Stranger Things is coming to an end. Netflix has announced that the runaway hit — perhaps the streamer's most successful original series to date — will end with a newly announced fifth season. The news was announced alongside the reveal of a handful of posters for the show's upcoming fourth season, with creators Matt and Ross Duffer announcing that not only with the fourth season be split into two parts for fans to enjoy, but that the story of Will (Noah Schnapp), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and the rest of the Hawkins gang will end as the creators' planned story arc comes to a close.
In a statement, the Duffer Brothers revealed that the story arc for Stranger Things had always been planned out in advance — seven years ago, to be precise — with an anticipated length of four or five seasons. The idea of planning an entire show in advance is not uncommon, with other horror-adjacent series like Gravity Falls doing much the same thing, and the brothers are "incredibly proud" of the results of what they've created, a smash series that helped catapult many of its stars, including Brown and Finn Wolfhard, to fame.
"There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things," the Duffer Brothers said. "New mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes. But first we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down."
To soothe audience's nerves about the imminent ending of what might be the best combination of horror and nostalgia to come out of television...well, since the 80s, Netflix has also released the synopsis for the now two-part season four of Stranger Things. Set six months after the "Battle of Starcourt", the series' core group of friends — also including Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, and Sadie Sink, are separated for the first time, which makes coping with what they've experienced even worse. The cherry on top? New supernatural threats continue to surface in Hawkins, leading to a mystery that might finally reveal the secrets of the Upside Down.
Volume 1 of Strangers Things season four premieres on Netflix on May 27, with Volume 2 following on July 1. Seasons one through three are streaming now.