We have an incoming transmission from Hawkins, Indiana: Stranger Things Season 5 has started filming. Miss your favorite nerds? They’re back, ready (or not) for whatever Vecna has in store for them in the beloved series’ final season.

Here’s everything we know so far about Stranger Things Season 5:

When does Stranger Things Season 5 start filming?

It’s already underway! Code red: As of Jan. 8, 2024, Stranger Things is officially back in production. See a photo of the cast back on set below. Plus, check out Ross Duffer’s Instagram for more behind-the-scenes photos of the cast like Gaten Matarazzo’s Dustin Henderson captioned, “Hellfire lives!”; a shot of Finn Wolfhard’s Mike Wheeler in a room with, unsurprisingly, a Star Wars poster; and Millie Bobby Brown with the Duffers. Also look out for Natalia Dyer in an artsy shot worthy of Hawkins High’s newspaper, The Weekly Streak; Caleb McLaughlin and Sadie Sink together on set in a hospital room; David Harbour’s Hopper looks ready to drive on over to Enzo’s; and Noah Schnapp celebrating Will Byers’ birthday on March 22.

(L to R) Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Cara Buono, Joe Keery, Amybeth McNulty, Charlie Heaton, Brett Gelman, Maya Hawke, Natalia Dyer, Jamie Campbell Bower, Priah Ferguson, Linda Hamilton, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Ross Duffer, Matt Duffer, Finn Wolfhard, and Sadie Sink of Stranger Things.

Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix

What are the first few lines of Stranger Things Season 5?

At the end of Stranger Things Day 2023, the @strangerwriters Twitter account had one more present for all the fans out there: The first few lines of Season 5, Chapter 1, Scene 1. 

What’s the title of the first episode of Stranger Things Season 5?

On Stranger Things Day 2022, we learned the Season 5 premiere episode title: “The Crawl.” And we hope you’ve been theorizing along with us about what it could mean: What is the Crawl? Who is crawling? Why are they crawling? Where are they crawling to? 

The Stranger Things writers started working on Season 5 on Aug. 2, 2022, almost exactly a month after Season 4, Volume 2 debuted. Since then, they have graced the fans with repeated updates on the writing process of Season 5, from beginning their grid stage of writing each episode (Aug. 25, 2022) to completing that grid (Sept. 20, 2022).

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Are there any new cast members in Stranger Things Season 5?

Yup! Linda Hamilton (The Terminator, Children of the Corn, Chuck) announced that she would be joining the cast of Stranger Things Season 5 at 2023’s Tudum: A Global Fan Event. As for any details about her role — well, that’s as mysterious as the Upside Down. But we do know that she’s a major fan of the series. “I don’t know how to be a fangirl and an actress at the same time,” she said during her video announcement at Tudum. “I’m gonna work on that.”

What’s Stranger Things Season 5 about?

Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer previously told Tudum that they wrote a 25-page mythology document for Netflix back in Season 1 that delves into the mythology and lore of the Upside Down. “We were like, ‘We know what’s going on in the Upside Down, more or less, but we want it to be unknowable. We want it to be mysterious,’ ” Matt Duffer explained. “But they were like, ‘Yeah, but can you write it down?’ And so we wrote it all down.”

While the audience learned quite a bit about the Upside Down in Season 4, there’s definitely more to come in Season 5. “The last remaining questions that are answered in that document, we’ve punted a couple of those to have some big reveals in Season 5,” said Ross Duffer during Geeked Week in June 2022. “And that’s really going to affect what Season 5 is about.” 

To be continued, it seems…

And while you wait for the show’s return, may we suggest a trip to London to check out the Stranger Things: The First Shadow play on the West End? The original stage play production opened on Dec. 14, 2023 at the Phoenix Theatre. Read everything a nerd needs to know about this new dimension of the Stranger Things universe here.

Crack Up with the Cast of Stranger Things over These BloopersEven Vecna can't keep a straight face.