NEED TO KNOW
Stranger Things is giving fans a sneak peek at the continuation of its final season.
On Monday, Dec. 15, Netflix unleashed its trailer for Volume 2 of its fifth and final season, which arrives on Dec. 25.
Soundtracked by Diana Ross’ 1980 track “Upside Down,” the visual picks up right where things left off in Hawkins, Indiana and beyond, as Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) claims that he and his friends “never stood a chance” as much of the crew explores the abyss together.
“This whole time, everything we ever assumed about the upside down has been dead wrong,” says Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo).
Courtesy of Netflix
The rest of the trailer features flashes of shootings, massive explosions in the sky and on the ground, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) tapping into her powers and the crew emphasizing that they “need to be a team” to survive it all.
“It is time for a new world,” Vecna says at the end of the clip, which ends just as suspenseful as it began.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Courtesy of Netflix
The latest iteration of Stranger Things also features returning cast members Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery and Maya Hawke, among others.
The fifth season opened with 59.6 million views, per Variety, making it the best premiere-week viewership of an English-language Netflix series and the third best overall. It premiered on Nov. 26.
“As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread,” a synopsis for the entire season reads. “The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.”
Speaking with PEOPLE at the final season’s world premiere in Los Angeles on Nov. 6, executive producer Shawn Levy gave PEOPLE a further hint at what’s to come — calling the finale “as good as any TV series finale I’ve seen in my life, and a resolution to the whole Jancy Stancy controversy/triangle.” Levy was referring to the series-long love triangle between Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers and Steve Harrington.
Courtesy of Netflix
“I guess there was this umbrella of bittersweet that sort of was across the whole shoot because we knew how special this was,” Levy said of how production went.
He added, “We knew that these connections are forever, but we knew it was coming to a close. And so that sort of smile with tears in your eyes, that feeling was very prevalent all year long.”
Volume 1 of Stranger Things season 5 is now streaming on Netflix. Volume 2 drops Dec. 25 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET, followed by the finale on Dec. 31
