Final ever Stranger Things trailer released ahead of season 5 finale

Stranger Things has released the trailer for the show’s final episode.

The final episode's trailer focuses heavily on Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven, who has looked set to be one of the characters to potentially die in the finale.

With a voiceover from David Harbour's Hopper talking about the horrible difficulties Eleven has faced in her life so far, this will continue to fuel worries from fans that she is set to sacrifice herself in what the Duffer Brothers have promised to be an emotional finale.

Volume One of the Netflix show's final season set viewing records on its release, with over 8 billion minutes watched in the first week, beating the show's own record for season four.

Season five's finale will also be shown in trailers across the US, with Netflix confirming they are opening even more screenings after fan demand led to numerous screenings selling out.

Here is the trailer for the final episode:

The finale is set to feature a massive showdown between the series' heroes and Vecna.

Volume two's final episode featured a massive reveal: the Upside Down wasn't really another dimension, but a wormhole to a world, 'The Abyss', from which the monsters have all been coming.

Eleven, Will, and the others discovered his plan: to bring The Abyss to earth, destroying the world in the process.

Despite fans being excited for the finale after nine years, the show has been embroiled in major controversy in the few days since season five, volume two released, with Netflix facing criticism from Stranger Things fans.

Vecna's plan will destroy the world (Netflix)

This includes rumours of a supposed ‘secret volume two’ cut, which led to a petition amassing over 280,000 signatures, though an actor from the show has come out to debunk the claims.

Season five’s penultimate episode The Bridge has come under specific fire, with a mass review-bombing campaign having been launched online.

This led to the episode becoming the lowest-rated on IMDb of the entire TV show.

Whilst some of this was legitimate criticism of the show’s lacklustre scenes leading into the finale, there have been claims online that a large part of this was supposedly due to homophobia after Will Byers’ scene in which he came out as gay.

Fans are also theorising that Steve is a goner, but they've done that since season two (Netflix)

Some scenes and storylines in the lead-up to the finale, though, have been singled out for praise by fans, leading to there still being a core fanbase online who can’t wait for the show's final episode.

The finale will release on New Year’s Eve at 8pm ET and will also be showing in theatres across the US and Canada on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Speaking about the finale in a previous interview, Matt and Ross Duffer teased that the two-hour and eight-minute-long finale is set to be ‘massive’.

Matt Duffer said: “I mean, it’s massive. I will say… the thing I’m most excited about… for people to watch the finale is in terms of the scale, it’s the biggest thing we’ve ever had.”

The Stranger Things finale releases tomorrow, 31 December, at 8pm ET and at 1am GMT on 1 January 2026.