Stranger Things debunks wild new 'secret episode' theory as new documentary drops

Stranger Things has debunked yet another wild viral theory suggesting a ‘new secret episode’ was incoming with the release of a new documentary.

The ending of Stranger Things has arguably become overshadowed by the huge viral movement claiming that there was a secret episode nine set to be released.

Called ‘Conformity Gate’, fans became convinced that Netflix was set to release a secret new finale on January 7, and the streamer even crashed due to the number of fans looking for it.

Now, Netflix have now released a two-hour documentary about the making of season five, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5.

While the main theory of ‘Conformity Gate’ centred around Netflix’s January 7^th ‘What’s Next’ announcement being the day the new episode was set to release, this was not the only theory.

One viral video pointed towards the One Last Adventure documentary actually itself being a reveal of the secret finale, inspired by A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The theory goes that the Duffer Brothers have been very open about the influences of 80s movies, and that season five’s Vecna story with his fixation on kids and them all existing in dream-like memories in his mind draws clear links to Freddie Krueger.

In addition to that Robert Englund, the iconic actor who played Freddie Krueger in the horror classics, was actually in Stranger Things – playing Vecna’s dad Victor Creel.

A Nightmare On Elm Street wasn’t the major inspiration that fans were pointing to however, but the seventh film in the franchise. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare was a fascinating departure featuring Krueger as a real-life demonic entity who hunts down the cast and crew of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

This starts as what seems to be a real-life normal documentary, before Wes Craven reveals that Krueger has now escaped to the real world.

This led a theory to be popularised by Instagram creator Gregory Lawrence, who suggested that the documentary was going to become invaded by Vecna in the same meta way.

The theory is fascinating, however, with the release of the documentary not featuring a real-life Vecna chasing Noah Schnapp around a Netflix lot in Atlanta, it is beginning to set in for fans of Stranger Things that the show is really over.

One fan tweeted after the documentary dropped furious, saying: “Just skipped to the end of the documentary. Ain’t none of the theories for Conformity Gate true.

“They didn’t pull a Freddie Krueger 7 move on the show. The duffer brothers suck a** at writing.

“#StrangerThings5 deserved a better ending that made sense.”

Another fan tweeted in a similarly harsh way, saying: “Netflix released the Stranger Things documentary and it’s just a standard documentary.

“The Duffer Brothers have fully cemented themselves as two of the worst writers in history. Conformity gate was wrong, turns out S5 was just a waste of 450 million dollars.”