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'Stranger Things' Season 4 Hits Netflix in May, Season 5 Will Be the Last

The Duffer brothers said the season will have not one, but two release dates.

Meara Isenberg Writer
Meara covers streaming service news for CNET. She recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where she wrote for her college newspaper, The Daily Texan, as well as for state and local magazines. When she's not writing, she likes to dote over her cat, sip black coffee and try out new horror movies.
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Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
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  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
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Eleven in a teaser for Stranger Things season 4.

 Netflix

We're getting more Stranger Things episodes in May. A letter posted to Twitter Thursday, signed by show creators Matt and Ross Duffer, revealed the Netflix  hit's fourth season will premiere in two parts. The first volume will arrive on May 27, followed by the second on July 1.

The Duffer brothers also said the show's fifth season will be its last. 

"Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things. At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons," the letter says. "It proved too large to tell in four, but -- as you'll soon see for yourselves -- we are now hurtling toward our finale."

Netflix has experimented with various release tempos for different film and TV projects over the years. Its teen-horror trilogy Fear Street, for example, landed on Netflix weekly over three weeks last summer. The last season of Money Heist arrived in two installments, like the latest Stranger Things will.

Netflix's decisions to drop separate installments are a gambit to extend the hype cycle for its titles. Netflix has faced criticism that its all-episodes-at-once release model, in the midst of its torrent of new programming, hurts word-of-mouth buzz and water-cooler discussion that some fandoms love.

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