Updated Dec. 29, 2025, 12:32 p.m. ET
NEW YORK ‒ Hold onto your Eggos.
The fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” is drawing to a close with a two-plus-hour finale episode, which is coming to Netflix and select movie theaters Dec. 31.
Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers in the streaming sci-fi sensation, first read the last script at a table read alongside the rest of his castmates. Normally, the show’s creators, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, would send over scripts ahead of time.
But with this one, “they’ve been so lock and key,” Schnapp told USA TODAY earlier this month. “I remember reading it and being like, ‘This is perfect.’ You end and you’re like, ‘Everyone’s stories are closed.’ You finally feel satisfied with no more questions. What more could you want?”
Season 5 has proven divisive among “Stranger Things” fans, many of whom have complained on social media that there are too many characters fighting for screentime in the series’ final batch of eight episodes. There are also critics who believe that the show’s apocalyptic storyline has gotten overstuffed with convoluted mythology.
Schnapp, 21, recognizes that it’s “hard” to please everyone, but he trusts the Duffers to land the plane.
“It’s literally impossible, which is why they’re not working to satisfy ‘this versus that,'” Schnapp says. “There’s so much pressure on that last episode to not just finish the season, but the last episode also tells a story of what the whole show was. But I think the Duffers and us as a cast, honestly, are good at tuning out the noise.”
There are “always people fighting over what should happen and what shouldn’t,” Schnapp continues. “The Duffers are really good at being tunnel vision. They’re just working to tell the story that they set out to tell 10 years ago. They planned out the final scene from the beginning. They’re so smart in how they write the show and everything has a purpose. Everything was planned.”
The young actor screened the finale with the rest of the cast less than two weeks ago, and he has plans to see it again in theaters with friends and family on New Year’s Day.
“I’m not watching on New Year’s Eve because I don’t want to be depressed the whole night,” Schnapp jokes. “I really think now when we watch this, it’s like a proper goodbye to our childhoods. These characters have become a piece of us, so it’s almost like saying goodbye to a piece of yourself.”
He’s also prepared for plenty of tears.
“Matt Duffer said he never cries at the stuff he does, but every time he watches this episode, it moves him,” Schnapp says. “So if he is, I definitely will – I’m the biggest emotional person. I’ll cry at anything!”