Netflix has released the first five minutes of Stranger Things Season 5, and it seems the final season of the hit sci-fi adventure series will take fans back to the very beginning of Will Byers’ terrible time spent in the Upside Down.
The upcoming season kicks off by revealing what really happened to Will in the Upside Down after he disappeared the night of November 6, 1983. As it turns out, Will bravely held his own for quite awhile, and even encountered Vecna long before the other kids did in Season 4.
The clip, released late Thursday (November 6), starts with young Will curled up in Castle Byers, softly singing The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” to himself. All hell breaks loose when a Demogorgon suddenly bursts into the hut, and Will goes running through the dark, twisted woods of the Upside Down. After climbing a tree to safety, the monster finds him, and he leaps to another tree out of desperation, only to fall tumbling to the ground where he is dragged off.
We then see Will, unconscious, ensnared in vines inside the Hawkins Public Library—exactly where Joyce and Hopper found him in the Upside Down at the end of Season 1. The Demogorgon cowers away as Vecna appears and approaches the little boy, attaching a vine to his mouth that begins to feed dark particles to him. “At long last we can begin. You and I, we are going to do such beautiful things together, William,” Vecna tells Will, before the scene cuts to black.
Watch below:
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Released on October 30, the official Season 5 trailer already hinted that Will will play a big role this season as his connection to Vecna—and use as Vena’s pawn—becomes more apparent.
“Will, you are going to help me… one last time,” Vecna tells Will in the trailer, using his telekinetic powers to lift the teen off the ground and toward him menacingly.
Fans have long theorized that Vecna will use Will, who was tethered to the Mind Flayer in Season 2, against Eleven and his friends in the final season, and it seems that will surely be the case after Will spent several seasons sensing the Upside Down’s evil presence lurking in the background.
Season 5 takes place in the fall of 1987. Netflix’s official synopsis for the season reads:
Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.
Stranger Things Season 5 will be released in three parts: The first four episodes will hit Netflix on November 26, the next three episodes will begin streaming on Christmas (December 25), and the series finale will air on New Year’s Eve (December 31).
Episodes will be available to stream beginning at 5PM PT/8PM ET on their respective dates.
