Stranger Things show ending theory revived as 'Dicegate' hints at new date for episode nine

A week and a half on from the viral Stranger Things ‘Conformity Gate’ theory being debunked by Netflix, the first cast member of the show has spoken out about it: denying it ever existed.

However, an online viral theory has already stepped forward to revive the idea that the show isn’t really over and that a new episode is set to release, with ‘Dicegate’ having been born on social media.

‘Conformity Gate’ suggested that on January 7 Netflix were set to release a secret ninth episode of Stranger Things season five which would reveal that the finale we saw was a vision shown to Mike by Vecna.

This theory became so massive that even Joe Keery claims to have seen it and told BBC Radio One he was speaking to co-star Charlie Heaton about it – though he added he was there to ‘absolutely squash your dreams’ and said there was no ninth episode.

Joe Keery squashed Conformity Gate in a new interview (Radio One)

Keery will probably be shaking his fist at Andrew Garfield now though because, after his repeated public denials that he was in Spider-Man: No Way Home, no one tends to now believe actors in interviews telling them their secret theories are wrong.

This new viral theory called ‘Dicegate’ hinges on Stranger Things being so closely linked to Dungeons and Dragons with fans noticing issues with some of the promotional material for the show.

For those not quite as nerdy as myself, D&D is run almost entirely by rolling a 20-sided dice to figure out whether anything you try to do in the game is a success or a failure.

This means that rolling a 20 is the best-case scenario, and rolling a one is a catastrophic failure.

Rolling what’s called a ‘natural 20’ on the dice is a huge win in D&D, leading some Stranger Things promotional material to centre around this iconic image of a dice resting on the number 20.

In one scenario, a Netflix TikTok account had Finn Wolfhard roll a dice and announce the show was 20 days away… but fans noticed something strange.

For any fellow nerds this is an odd sight to see (Netflix/TikTok)

When he rolls a natural 20 the numbers surrounding this on the dice are 7, 19, and 13, which may seem normal to your average reader but to the nerdiest of fans is slightly odd.

That’s because on a real average d20 the number 20 is surrounded by 2, 8, and 14, whilst the actual number surrounded by a 7, 19, and 13 is a natural one.

One fan took to X to share this theory, saying: “Mike rolled a natural 1. Vecna is making them think they rolled a natural 20. THEY LOST.

“Mike (the entire town?) is Vecna’d. Conformity Gate might be real? Welcome to Dicegate.”

Fans in the reply have taken this and run, pointing out that the dice shown in the final shot of season five has similarly incorrect numbers on it, whilst others suggested this could be proof that January 19 is the actual date another episode could be coming out.

One reply said: "Stopp I've been trying to get off the bus!"

Another said: "damn you guys have to stop coming up with theories that make sense bc we all know they’re not making another episode or even addressing conformity gate."

Personally, this theory seems even more farfetched than Conformity Gate but who knows, Stranger Things have happened…