Here’s How Many Episodes Will Be In ‘Stranger Things 5’

There’s a great deal we still don’t know about Stranger Things 5. For instance, we have no idea who will survive. We also don’t know when the new season is set to air, though it’s almost certainly going to arrive more quickly than Season 4, which was delayed by the pandemic.

We do know it’s the final season of the show. We know that the town of Hawkins is in grave peril, and that the fate of our cast of heroes hangs in the balance.

Max (Sadie Sink) is particular danger, having all but perished in the Stranger Things 4 finale. Eddie (Joseph Quinn) is dead, but could still return as an undead minion of Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). Everyone else? It’s a crapshoot.

A time-jump seems all but certain, though how that will work after the Season 5 finale remains unclear. Earlier this year I speculated that a time-jump was unworkable with the cliffhanger ending.

Now, one more piece of information about Season 5 has come to light: The number of episodes the show’s writers and creators are currently counting on. The Stranger Things Writers’ Twitter account (which is worth following) recently tweeted this:

The image reveals a whiteboard with 8 episodes written across the top. Boxes beneath the episodes remain totally blank, and we can’t see all the way to the left of the board to find out what each row is for (though it seems likely that story beats will be mapped out for each episode in some form or another—episode arcs, A/B/C stories in each episode etc).

Right int he center there’s a double line drawn between episodes 4 and 5. A follower asked the account if this was where the time-jump occurred and the writers replied: “Not a time jump. Does it mean anything?” accompanied by the thinking emoji. It’s possible this is just a double line but I suspect it does mean something, perhaps demarcating two distinct halves of the season with some major event propelling the story forward between them (a major character death, perhaps?)

Of course, we are only seeing a glimpse into the process here. It’s possible there will be twelve episodes in the upcoming season and we just can’t see to the right where four more are blocked out, and another double line indicates the divide between Act 2 and Act 3.

Still, 12 seems very unlikely. Season 4 had 9, albeit long ones, with a total of 34 across the series’ run. 8 seems very likely, though obviously this number could change as the season comes together.

What do you hope will happen in Stranger Things 5? Anyone you think’s going to die? Who do you want to survive? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter or Facebook.