WATCH: Hawkins’ heroes regroup one last time for ‘Stranger Things’ final chapter 

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Familiar Hawkins horrors return as the hit Netflix series rolls to its final season

MANILA, Philippines – The Rifts are open. Vecna is gone. And what’s coming next may be deadlier than anything the gang has ever faced.

Netflix Philippines released the official teaser for the final season of Stranger Things on Thursday, July 17, and it’s packed with signs of escalating danger as the hit series rolls to its final season.

Hawkins itself is still in ruins and the town looks to be under strict military lockdown, with civilians sheltering in tents and convoys of armed personnel patrolling the streets.

The return of the Hawkins Lab within the Upside Down also evokes the origins of the entire crisis, bringing the story back to where it began: the moment Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) tore open the first Rift.

Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is once again seen touching the back of his neck — a recurring signal of his connection to the Upside Down, and more specifically, to Vecna. The group is also shown gathered around a Dungeons & Dragons map table, a direct nod to how the boys first tried to make sense of the Upside Down in Season 1.

One scene shows Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) adjusting a radio antenna on a van — a callback to Season 1’s ham radios. This time, the group may be using radio frequencies as a weapon, with sound being Vecna’s known weakness.

Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), meanwhile, is still in a coma. As seen in the Season 4 finale, her body was violently broken after Vecna attacked her. Although Eleven was able to revive her, she appears to remain in critical condition in Season 5.

The teaser ends with Vecna’s ominous return, confirming that he remains the central threat in the final battle. Its reappearance is accompanied by the return of familiar horrors: the demodogs from Season 2.

Ross Duffer, one-half of the series creators Duffer Brothers, posted on Instagram that the teaser “barely scratches the surface” of “The Party’s” last adventure.

The series launched its first season nine years ago, on July 15, 2016, with an original cast that also includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, and Cara Buono. 

They’re later joined by Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Jamie Campbell Bower, Amybeth McNulty, Nell Fisher, Jake Connelly, Alex Breaux, and Linda Hamilton in the succeeding seasons, with the last airing on May 2022. 

The fifth and final season’s first volume includes four episodes, and will premiere on Netflix on November 26, followed by the second volume on December 25, and the finale on December 31, 2026. – Blaise Rellata/Rappler.com

Blaise Rellata is a Rappler intern from Mapua University.