Stranger Things Season 5 From Creators Matt & Ross Duffer, Director EP Shawn Levy: “A Culmination” Of Everything That Comes Before

strange things Creators Matt and Ross Duffer have detailed what fans can expect from the fifth and final season of their ’80s Netflix phenomenon.

At a Sunday night panel at the streamer’s Tudum Theater in Los Angeles, the filmmakers were asked if there are any new influences from ’80s pop culture that will shape the final season. A Nightmare on Elm Street and his villain Freddy Kreuger formed the two-part Season 4 this summer.

“[Season] 5, we see, is kind of the pinnacle of all seasons, so it has a little bit of every season,” Ross Duffer told a packed house. “I think we’re trying to go back to the beginning a little bit, in the tone of 1. But also scale-wise it’s more like what 4 is. So hopefully there will be a bit of everything.”

A key factor that sets Season 5 apart, according to Matt Duffer, is that the danger the world is in is now “absolutely clear” — not just to our teenage heroes from the town of Hawkins, Indiana, but to them as well as their parents and the rest of their community.

strange things, for the uninitiated, is a sci-fi drama that follows a group of Midwestern teenagers as they battle supernatural forces connected to an alternate reality known as The Upside Down. The series’ final season begins months after the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends find themselves separated for the first time—and dealing with the complexities of high school didn’t make things any easier. In these most vulnerable times, a new and terrifying supernatural threat has emerged, representing a gruesome mystery that, if solved, could end the horrors of the Upside Down forever.

The Duffers were joined for today’s panel — hosted by Patton Oswalt — by director EP Shawn Levy, as well as longtime cast members Caleb McLaughlin, Priah Ferguson and Millie Bobby Brown — with the latter joining virtually. Others who appeared in person included season 4 hot newbies Joseph Quinn, Eduardo Franco and Jamie Campbell Bower.

While talk of season five’s main takeaways was brief, Ross Duffer confirmed that the writers are “on track for the second” episode after submitting the first script to Netflix “a few weeks ago.” (The title for the Season 5 premiere is “Chapter One: The Crawl,” Netflix revealed last week.)

Ross shared that the team is “full steam ahead” with the writing process, having first developed “an overall plan and background” for Upside Down in Season 2. He added that while some of the questions surrounding this fantastic arena were answered over the course of season four, there will still be “quite a lot” to unravel in the show’s final year. “But as important as the supernatural, we have so many characters now, most of which are still alive,” Duffer continued. “It’s important to complete these arcs because a lot of these characters have grown since season 1. So giving them time to complete their character arcs and tie up those loose ends and make our final reveals is a balancing act. “

Finally, Levy opined that the Duffers are looking for whatever balance they can achieve. “I’m paralyzed with fear that I’ll spoil it all, but I will say the thing about these Duffer brothers is that even though the show has become so famous and the characters so iconic, they know so much about the ’80s and the supernatural and the genre, it’s about these people. It’s about those characters,” he said strange things.”

strange things earned 13 Emmy nominations for its fourth season, with wins in prosthetic makeup, sound editing, sound mixing, music direction and stunt coordination. Produced by Monkey Massacre Productions and 21 Laps Entertainment, the show was renewed for its fifth and final season in February, but it’s not yet clear when this final chapter will hit Netflix. Levy Executive Produces with Dan Cohen for 21 rounds, as well as the Duffers, Iain Paterson and Curtis Gwinn.