Does Stranger Things’ season 5 trailer tease an early death – and a close call for Dustin?

by

Okay, so I just watched the new trailer for Stranger Things 5, and honestly, it’s a lot more upbeat and playful than the first one we saw. It feels good to see the characters having some fun amidst everything. But, and this is a big ‘but,’ I can’t shake the feeling that Netflix is deliberately lulling us into a false sense of security. I suspect there’s a genuinely terrifying twist lurking just beneath the surface of all this apparent optimism, and they’re letting us enjoy the calm before the storm.

The first preview, released right before Halloween, strongly hinted at intense pain and hardship. It featured scenes of characters in peril, all set to Queen’s dramatic song, “Who Wants to Live Forever.”

The shocking ending to the last season naturally got fans speculating about who might die, and even though the new trailer seems more upbeat, we still shouldn’t assume everyone will be safe.

The scene begins with Dustin and Steve, an unlikely pair of best friends, sitting in a car. A noticeable satellite transmitter is attached to the roof.

We then learn bits and pieces of a daring plan devised by Mike, Eleven, and their friends. Dustin believes this plan will ultimately lead to Vecna’s defeat. It’s clear their adventures have moved far beyond a simple game like Dungeons & Dragons.

The trailer concludes with Dustin, Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy driving through a gateway into the Upside Down, likely to confront the enemy directly.

There’s an air of hope and triumph to the 90-second sizzle reel, but two troubling signs remain.

As a big fan, I noticed something in the latest trailer – Dustin is covered in cuts and bruises again! It was the same in the previous promo too, and honestly, it was a really touching scene – seeing him all beat up and crying, then Steve hugging him, clearly worried sick. It just adds to the tension, you know?

What’s causing the pain and suffering? The clue might not be in what the trailer reveals, but in what it deliberately hides.

A key thing missing from the new season is the original adult characters. While the younger characters are now grown up, I’m talking about those who were adults when the show began – like Joyce (Winona Ryder), Hopper (David Harbour), and Murray (Brett Gelman).

The two trailers combined are 225 seconds long, but only about 16 seconds feature the returning characters, and some of that footage is repeated.

It’s obvious that the creators of Stranger Things, Matt and Ross Duffer, want to bring the focus back to the original group of kids. The cast grew quite large in seasons 3 and 4, and now they seem to be considering big changes to get back to the show’s roots.

It looks like the adult characters either don’t have a significant role in the story, meaning we’ve already seen most of their scenes, or the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers, are deliberately keeping something about them a secret.

Is Vecna somehow tricking the adults of Hawkins into the Upside Down, similar to the story of the Pied Piper, and leaving the teenagers to save them? Or does he have an even more dangerous plan?

It’s doubtful the creators will kill off all the adult characters at once, but it’s definitely possible we’ll see at least one of them die this season.

Instead of saving a major character’s death for later in the season, like they did with Bob in season 2, Billy in season 3, and Eddie in season 4, the show could start its final season with a surprising and immediate loss.

The big question is: who’s most at risk? Joyce and Hopper immediately come to mind. Losing either of them would be devastating, both to the story and to the viewers.

Throughout the trailers, Hopper is consistently shown in a specific scene with Eleven. They seem to be secretly entering one of the military bases that have appeared in Hawkins. Will their mission fail?

Eleven’s emotional confession to Mike – that he can’t control how things turn out – hints at a possible tragedy. The trailer also shows Joyce looking deeply upset, leaving viewers to wonder if she’s grieving a loss.

After the cliffhanger at the end of season 3 made it seem like Hopper had died, simply killing him off now might feel like a repeat of that moment. However, the creators, the Duffer brothers, are skilled storytellers and could find a new, impactful way to handle his potential death. So, it’s still a possibility.

There are other possibilities, of course. A less shocking approach would be to focus on a minor adult character – someone like Mike’s parents, Karen and Ted Wheeler, or Mr. Clarke, the science teacher who supports the kids.

It’s unclear if actor David Haven will be back for the new season – he didn’t appear in season four – but rumors suggest his character might return. This would make sense, as his character was the first to come up with the idea of the Upside Down back in season one.

Mr. Clarke’s death could easily explain why Dustin is so upset, considering the boys admired him. It would also be a simple way for the show’s writers to move the story forward without causing major upheaval.

While it’s possible a younger character might die, it seems more probable that any major loss would happen later in the season, as a significant final sacrifice, rather than something that happens early on. Fans have worried about Steve’s fate since the beginning, so he remains a possibility, but a devastating loss like that feels more likely to come at the end.

Here’s a simple way to look at it: in Avengers: Endgame, Heimdall (Idris Elba) dies early on. But killing Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) within the first few minutes would cause a huge uproar from fans.

Just to be clear, both for my reasoning and legally, the creators of Stranger Things haven’t suggested they intend to cause any trouble with the upcoming season. And a quick note to anyone hoping for drama: don’t count on it.

The final season of Stranger Things will begin streaming on Netflix on Wednesday, November 26th. The remaining episodes will be released on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.

Read More

2025-11-24 21:07