- - “Stranger Things” series finale trailer previews explosions, tragedy, and worlds colliding: 'Let's end this, kid'

Nick RomanoDecember 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM

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David Harbour (Hopper) and Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) in the 'Stranger Things' series finale

This is it, folks. The end of Stranger Things (spinoffs aside).

Netflix released the trailer for the two-hour and eight-minute series finale, which drops in theaters and on the streamer New Year's Eve. It's a lot of dramatics, expectedly: one fiery explosion, a devastated Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) entering the tank in the Upside Down, and Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) colliding worlds.

"I need you to fight one last time," Hopper (David Harbour) tells Elle in a psych-up speech. "Life has been so unfair to you. Your childhood was taken from you. You've been attacked, manipulated by terrible people, but you never let it break you. Fight for the days on the other side of this. Fight for a world beyond Hawkins. Let's end this, kid."

The penultimate episode provided the setup. Team Hawkins will enter the Upside Down just as Vecna, powered by the kidnapped children, begins to merge the world of the Abyss with Earth. When the Abyss is close enough to reach in the Upside Down, Eleven will hack into Vecna's mind to fight on the psychic plane, while the others enter the gnarly dimension and rescue the children.

Oh! And before they head back to their own world, they plan to set off an explosion that destroys the Upside Down for good. Easy enough, right?

Though there's not a whole of revealing footage, one particular scene in the trailer shows Elle, Max (Sadie Sink), and Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) seemingly in Vecna's mind, standing on a stage as the curtains close. So it's likely we'll be getting more material related to Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the prequel stage play focusing on a younger Henry Creel.

The production prominently features a play within the play where its tragic conclusion takes place.

Courtesy of Netflix

The Hawkins gang enter the Upside Down in the 'Stranger Things' series finale

The shot of a waling Dustin, however, should have fans concerned. Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer previously teased the fate of Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), and now most are expecting something very bad to happen to him.

Matt Duffer told Entertainment Weekly of the finale, "It's very large in scale, but I think it's more character-focused than any of the other episodes in the season. With the two-hour runtime, you're able to do both."

"What we really wanted to make sure we did this year with the penultimate episode was get the plan in motion so that episode 8 can start at a sprint as opposed to generally with our finales where they're building the plans and it's climaxing," Ross said. "This way, by just starting at a sprint, one, it's fun, but also it gave us more time on the backend to spend with these characters and wrap this up properly because we didn't wanna feel rushed at the end. We wanted to be able to take the time that we felt that these characters deserved."

Will (Noah Schnapp) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) in the 'Stranger Things' series finale

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The episode, "The Rightside Up," will simultaneously drop in select North American theaters and on the streaming platform starting Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. If you're hoping to score last-minute tickets to a theatrical screening, good luck.

On Instagram, Ross posted, "Over 1.1 million of you have already RSVPed to the finale screenings on NYE and New Year’s Day, and more than 3,500 showtimes across 620+ theaters are already completely full."

Watch the trailer above.

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”