Winona Ryder Teases “Bittersweet” Final Season of Stranger Things

Friends don’t lie.

Which is why Winona Ryder gave her honest review on how she’s feeling about the upcoming final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, on which she’s starred since 2016.

“We're still filming, it’s still happening till the end of the year,” she exclusively told E! News. “It's going to be bittersweet.”

But as she looks back on the eight years since season one premiered (plus an extra couple for the time the actors spent filming), the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star—whose movie is out in theaters Sept. 6—can’t quite believe how the show has turned the world upside down.

“It is the 10th year of that, which is wild,” she noted. “I could never I never imagined it would, you know, it's sort of like Beetlejuice. I don't think any of us anticipated that show becoming what it did.” (For more with Winona, tune into E! News tonight Aug. 20 at 11 p.m.)

And indeed, across the four seasons that have been released so far, Stranger Things has garnered n almost cult-like following, propelling its younger stars such as Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink and Gaten Matarazzo to huge levels of fame.

But as Winona noted, despite season four having been released in 2022, the final fifth installment is still in production—though Maya Hawke, who plays Robin Buckley on the series, recently promised the wait will be worth it.

“We’re making, basically, eight movies," Maya explained during the June 27 episode of Penn Badgley's Podcrushed. "The episodes are very long.”

Because, as she pointed out, show creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer take the responsibility they have for the fans very seriously.

“Our showrunners, Matt and Ross, take a lot of responsibility," Maya continued. "They have an amazing team of writers, but they’re very involved. It takes a long time to write each season, and it takes a long time to shoot them.”

And in a recent first-look video that teased the start of production for season five, many of the original cast members reflected on the journeys they’ve taken with the series since its inception.

As Millie reflected, “I started when I was 10. I’m now turning 20 years old. It feels very weird.”

But for many of them, including Gaten, they wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“This is home,” the now 21-year-old, who plays Dustin Henderson on the series, explained. “You just remember why you’re doing it and how much fun you have.”

For more on everything we know about Stranger Things season five, keep reading.

—Reporting by Emily Curl

While Max's fate is still up in the air, Matt and Ross Duffer told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) is dead "for real this time." As they said, "He's toast."

Same goes for Eddie (Joseph Quinn), who sacrificed himself to the Demobats to buy time for the rest of the kids fighting. Joseph told E! News he's still hoping to reappear in the show, saying, "I'd be very up for it. But yeah, let's see."

As for Max (Sadie Sink), the brothers aren't giving up on her just yet. "She's brain dead, but yeah, she's alive," they said. "She's blind and all of her bones are broken." 

While Max is technically still alive, there's no knowing if she'll ever wake up from her coma. "I have no idea what's coming in five and what that looks like," Sadie said in an interview with Deadline. "Max's storyline is very up in the air, 'cause obviously she's in a coma and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) can't find her in the void. So who knows where she is and what state she's in."

Even Natalia Dyer is confused about who Nancy belongs with. On one hand, she thinks Nancy and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are a good match, but she also sees that Steve (Joe Keery) has grown up. And there's a part of her that thinks Nancy shouldn't be with either one of them. "It's really tough," she told Variety. "I don't know. It feels like she's been in a relationship for a while so maybe she needs some self discovery time."

She continued, "Whatever happens, I would hope that she does it with integrity. I personally had some crunchy feelings about how the whole Jonathan thing started sort of behind Steve's back. I can't believe she did that. I mean, I can."

In the season finale, Will (Noah Schnapp) confirmed he and Vecna are still connected after they were linked to each other in season two. When asked if fans will see the two characters interact in season five, Jamie Campbell Bower told E! News, "We all know by now that Vecna and Will have history. So it would be a joy to to get back in there, as I'll gently put it."

In fact, Jamie remained secretive throughout the entire interview, but promised the Duffers have got it all thought out. "My lips are sealed," he said. "You'll have to wait and see. I think Matt and Ross got something beautiful cooking and they'll let us know in good time."

While Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) initially sought to start anew in California, it seems the Byers family is missing Hawkins and their hometown friends. So, they're leaving their California home and returning to Indiana, alongside Hopper and Eleven, in season five.

"It's mostly in Hawkins, and there's a lot obviously in the Upside Down," Matt Duffer told Collider about their season five plans. "But this is about everyone finally coming back. Coming back together, coming back to Hawkins.

The Duffer Brothers have mostly planned out season five, the final installment, but there's no knowing when filming will begin. 

"This last season took two years in total, so who knows how long season five will take," Sadie Sink told Deadline. "The Duffers definitely know the fans will be eagerly awaiting a fifth season, but I don't think they're gonna rush it. They wanna make the best final season that they could possibly make."

They may not rush the process, but it seems they're cutting down on the amount of scenes in the final season. The Duffer Brothers promised the upcoming episodes will be slightly shorter, though they anticipate the finale is going to be another feature-length episode. 

"The only reason we don't expect to be as long is, this season, if you look at it, it's almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery," Matt Duffer told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they're struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve's trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in season 5]."

On Jan. 8, Netflix confirmed that production on the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is underway by sharing a sweet group photo of the Hawkins crew. 

"THIS IS A CODE RED," the streaming service announced on social media. "STRANGER THINGS 5 production has officially begun!!!"

In an exclusive interview with E! News, Stranger Things executive producer Shawn Levy promised that season five "will answer all remaining questions," adding, "we are in the business of satisfying viewers."

On Nov. 6, fondly known as Stranger Things Day, Netflix revealed that the first episode of the final season will be titled, "Chapter One: The Crawl."

It appears that Will Byers will be the key to how Stranger Things wraps up its run on Netflix. On what fans can expect from the final season, star Noah Schnapp teased to Forbes, "I think they did a great job with Will's character this season, and beautifully addressed everything they needed to. The way they closed the show is just perfect—the story started with Will, and it'll end with Will."

Maya Hawke recently revealed the upcoming series is "basically eight movies."

As she explained on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed in June 2024, “The episodes are very long.”