Stranger Things 5: Teaser Trailer

Upside Down//Posing at the Stranger Things shop on the Las Vegas Strip, sophomore Natalia Arieli sits on a replicated version of the couch from the Byers’ home in season 1 of Stranger Things. The Stranger Things shop was created on the Strip for excited fans to experience fantastic replicas of rooms and scenes from the show, as well as buy merch and other souvenirs. (Photo by Natalia Arieli)

After years and years of anticipation and waiting impatiently for any news about the fifth season of the greatly loved TV show Stranger Things, Netflix and the Duffer Brothers have finally given us something. On May 31, 2025, Netflix released all three dates of the fifth season’s volumes and finale: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. About a month and a half later on July 16, 2025, we got our first sneak peek of season 5: the teaser trailer. Many anxious and enthusiastic fans have started to analyze the new trailer for any hints of plot details from season 5 and any clues as to what will happen, including me.

From the first 10 seconds of the trailer, we can see Steve Harrington (played by Joe Keery) fixing or building some machine in a dark room. A couple of seconds later, it cuts to a clip showing a building with a huge sign titled “50,000 WSQK Watts.” Next to it is a huge van with some sort of radio signal device on top of the car. As the next few seconds play out, we can see a little monitor with digits in “watts” increasing. Throughout the trailer, we can see these digits go up to around 100 watts. Because “watt” is a unit of power that represents the rate at which energy is being produced, my first theory about what is happening in these clips is that the group is trying to conduct a great deal of energy. Going back several seasons to season 3 of Stranger Things, you can recall that, to open up a gate to the Upside Down, there had to be a great deal of energy produced (as was shown with the Russians using the Starcourt Mall to open up a gate). From what we’ve been shown in the new trailer, I theorize that the group is trying to defeat Vecna by using the intense energy, or to somehow close the giant gates that Vecna created.

Next, Dustin Henderson (played by Gaten Matarazzo) started to say, “Burn commencing in 5…” and continued to count down to “1.” Throughout Stranger Things, we learned that the demogorgons and creatures living in the Upside Down hate fire, as we could see in season 2 when it harmed all of the vines and demogorgons when one was affected by fire. Also, in season 4, when Nancy Wheeler (played by Natalia Dyer) and the group burned Vecna, (played by Jamie Campbell Bower), we could see all of the demogorgons were affected, and so was Vecna. Dustin says “burn,” we can possibly infer that the group is planning on burning a huge group of the demogorgons, vines, or any other creatures in the Upside Down to affect Vecna or get rid of the other world completely.

In another one of the short clips shown in the trailer, Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp) is seen fainting and falling to the ground. This could suggest that Will could maybe see Vecna through his mind because he still has some connection to him, or Vecna could be showing him things as well, so that he can find the group and kill them. This definitely could mean that Will has a major role in season 5, which is fitting because the whole show started with him. Another clip also shows Nancy, Steve, Dustin, and Jonathan going to the Hawkins lab, which could hint at another theory suggesting that the show will end where it all started.

Another clip shows a scene where Nancy Wheeler is washing blood off her hands in the sink. It then cuts to her face, which we can then see that she is crying and looks devastated. Although we may not want to believe it, this could signal the death of someone close to Nancy, like Steve or Jonathan. This scene has specifically caused debates over the internet about whether Steve or Jonathan had died, and it would be heartbreaking if this theory proved to be true. 

My final theory is based on a thrilling and dramatic scene that was shown towards the end of the Stranger Things 5 trailer. The scene first depicts a huge gate opening with Vecna walking through it. Then it cuts to black for a moment while we can hear Vecna saying, “Found you.” These words gave me chills and also made me think about how he said he’d finally “found” them all. Before the trailer was released, the Duffer Brothers had informed us that season 5 would take place around a year or so after the spectacular ending to season 4. Vecna finally finding them could mean that part of the plot could be that the group is hiding from Vecna and is trying to hurt him from where he can’t get to them. Obviously, that failed because we could hear Vecna speaking, but now we can at least infer part of what is happening in the Stranger Things 5 plot.

Of course, these theories may or may not be true (we won’t know for a little bit), but whatever happens, the Duffer Brothers and Netflix will most likely surprise us all in the end with an incredible conclusion. Although there will most likely be tears, heartbreak, and devastation by the end of it, the final season will guarantee a fantastic ending, and for now, we can at least infer or start to guess what will be happening in Stranger Things 5 from the trailer. Stranger Things has been an amazing show, and I can’t wait to watch the first episode on Thanksgiving Day.