Even for a show that introduced a whole alternate dimension during its first season, "Stranger Things" has gone to a lot of places. More importantly, its world — which started out as a charming collection of 1980s sci-fi movie homages — has continued to grow, to the point that "Stranger Things" season 4 was inspired by a "Star Wars" film as opposed to charming small town sci-fi adventures of the Amblin variety. However, a story can go only so far before it has to end, both because season 4 raised the show's stakes to an all-time high and because the actors playing the younger characters have started to age out of their roles on a "Dawson's Creek" level.

(Joe Keery, who plays the show's 19-year-old heartthrob Steve Harrington, turned 33 this year.) With "Stranger Things" season 5, the Duffer Brothers' spectacle of a show is entering its endgame. Its increasingly elaborate plot arcs and VFX have led to increasingly lengthy production cycles, with a three-year wait between seasons 3 and 4.

History has repeated with season 5, as season 4 dropped all the way back in the summer of 2022. Fortunately, the first season 5 teaser is finally here, courtesy of Netflix's TUDUM event on May 31. The teaser finally reveals that "Stranger Things" season 5 will hit Netflix in three chunks: