We’ve come to the end of the road with Stranger Things, as one of Netflix’s most beloved shows has just released its last-ever trailer.
Hours away from the final episode, ‘Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up’, finally hitting our screens on New Year’s Eve, a new clip teases one last battle that will take the gang “beyond Hawkins”.
The newly released teaser centres on Eleven, the superpowered teen played by Millie Bobby Brown. As Hopper (David Harbour) urges her to “fight one last time,” the trailer looks back on previous seasons, giving us a handy recap of El’s trauma.
“Life has been so unfair to you,” Hopper tells her in one of his pep talks the show has got us used to by now.
“Your childhood was taken from you. You’ve been attacked, manipulated by terrible people, but you never let it break you,” he adds.
Courtesy of Netflix
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As Stranger Things gears up to end its five-season-long battle, the montage shows big baddie Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in his One form and Dr Martin ‘Papa’ Brenner (Matthew Modine) as they each took advantage of El for their respective ulterior motives.
“Fight for the days on the other side of this. Fight for a world beyond Hawkins,” Hopper’s voice continues, before he concludes with one of his staples: “Let’s end this, kid.”
The clip also sees El as she readies to enter the huge sensory deprivation tank at Hawkins lab in the Upside Down.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party follows through with Steve’s (Joe Keery) plan. (Spoilers ahead if you haven’t caught up on season 5 volume 2 just yet.)
Following the revelation that the Upside Down is but a “bridge”, a wormhole connecting the human world and Dimension X, the protagonists learned that Vecna intended to merge the two planes into a terrifying new world.
In one scene of the clip, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and the others can be seen on top of The Squawk tower. As they look up in shock, the exotic matter forming the bridge and Dimension X are closer and more unsteady than ever.
“Mother of god,” Dustin says in disbelief, and that pretty much sums up our feelings, too.
Courtesy of Netflix
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A big absentee from the clip, except for one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it frame, is El’s sister Kali aka Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), who has just returned to the show after a brief stint in season 2.
In the seventh episode of season 5, ‘The Bridge’, Kali suggested Eleven should join her in her ultimate sacrifice by remaining in the Upside Down after the group destroys it. With Vecna hopefully gone, the US government won’t continue experimenting if both El and Eight are nowhere to be found.
In this light, Hopper’s line, “Fight for the days on the other side of this”, takes on a sad connotation.
But will El go along with Kali’s plan? Only one way to find out.
Stranger Things releases its series finale on Netflix on New Year’s Eve in the US. In the UK, the final episode becomes available at 1am on New Year’s Day due to the time difference.
Season 5 episodes 1-7 are streaming now, as are seasons 1-4.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.Â
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).Â