This ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Episode Will Have the ‘Craziest Cold Open,’ Creator Says

Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer has a message for fans: Buckle up.

The writer-director — one-half of the Duffer Brothers, the duo behind the banger Netflix show — revealed in an Aug. 4 Instagram post that the first two “chapters” of the fifth and final season are “locked, mixed, scored, colored, DONE.” He also teased a bit of what’s to come, including the sci-fi series’ “craziest cold open” to date.

In the post, Ross, 41, debuted the title cards for the first two episodes — including one that teases the “vanishing” of someone he mysteriously covered up with a question mark.

Season opener “Chapter One: The Crawl,” he said in the caption, “is our favorite, most eventful first episode since Season 1.” It’s a bold claim, as the show’s beloved 2016 pilot debuted core characters Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo).

But Ross’s season 5 teasers didn’t stop there. The Stranger Things co-creator also teased that the second episode — which he referred to as “The Vanishing of…,” avoiding spoilers — “has by far the craziest cold open we’ve ever done. One of the sequences we’re most proud of this season.”

The co-creator also poked fun at fan theories about the episode title, writing, “(yeah yeah you think you know who blah blah).”

As for the lengths of the episodes, Ross said he has been instructed to keep them under wraps — for today.

“I would tell you runtimes, but I was told not to,” he concluded the teaser post. “At a later date, I guess 🤷‍♂️.”

Season 5 of Stranger Things — which will feature a time jump to the fall of 1987, the Duffers previously revealed — is set to release in three parts. Volume 1, which will contain four episodes, on Nov. 26, with a three-episode Volume 2, dropping on Christmas. The series finale will premiere on New Year’s Eve.

Both Duffers have been sharing plenty of teasers for the highly anticipated season. Earlier this year, Matt, 41, described the final season as “big and epic” in a press release. “There’s no time for a ramp-up. It’s going to be intense from beginning to end,” he said at the time.

“It’s also going to feel familiar,” Ross added. “This season is the biggest it’s ever been in scale, but everyone’s back together in Hawkins, interacting the same way they were in Season 1.”

The star-studded cast (which also includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Sadie Sink and Maya Hawke) wrapped filming in late 2024, and several cast members marked the end of the era with emotional goodbyes.

“I’m still in shock,” Wolfhard, 22, wrote on Instagram, in part. “We shot it for a year and I’ll miss all of my friends and our characters terribly.”

Alongside a throwback from season 1, the star added: “When I think of the show, I picture this first photo. A bunch of goofy young people making something they think is cool but really have no clue what’s to come. I feel like we’re still those people and I’m lucky to still stand beside them today.”

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Seasons 1 through 4 of Stranger Things are today streaming on Netflix. Season 5 premieres with Volume 1 on Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET. Volume 2 will be released on Dec. 25, and the finale will be released on Dec. 31.