SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the first five minutes of the upcoming final installment of Netflix‘s Stranger Things, which were unveiled following the red carpet premiere on Thursday night.
Netflix has released the first five minutes of Stranger Things Season 5 — and it doesn’t start where fans might’ve suspected.
The most recent trailer opened on the Hawkins Library in the Upside Down, and now we know that the opening of the season dives deep into this moment. Viewers will remember that this is where Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) was found back in Season 1 by his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour).
While the new episodes will take place largely 18 months after the events of Stranger Things 4, creators Matt and Ross Duffer first take us back in time to November 12, 1983. That’s six days after Will Byers originally went missing.
Watch on Deadline
Below is a detailed breakdown of the scenes that were unveiled.
The episode opens with a de-aged Noah Schnapp as 12-year-old Will, tired, confused and shaking inside the Upside Down version of Castle Byers as he mutters The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” to himself.
The song in particular seems to be of importance, since Will’s older brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) introduced him to that song in the very first episode of the series, and it provides the boys some reprieve from their mom’s confrontational phone call with their father from the other room. Since we know Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” was such a significant element in Max’s (Sadie Sink) ability to fend off Vecna, perhaps the Duffers are trying to tell us something.
But anyway, back to the latest.
As Will sings, he hears guttural noises outside that give him pause, moments before a Demogorgon crashes into the fort. Will nearly manages to escape after shooting the creature with a hunting rifle (another callback to Season 1, as we know we last see Will huddled in the Rightside Up version of Castle Byers with that rifle before he’s taken). He scales a tree in an attempt to evade the Demogorgon, but of course the monster finds him and sends him hurtling to the ground, where he goes unconscious before he’s swiftly pulled out of frame.
We don’t have to wait long to find out where he’s gone, though, because the scene cuts to black and opens on the shot of the Upside Down’s Hawkins Library. And what do you know? The Demogorgon has brought Will straight to big bad Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), bowing before him as he steps out of the shadows.
“At long last, we can begin,” Vecna says ominously as the tentacles lining the library hold Will in a vice grip up against the wall. Vecna looks to the sky as a particularly off-putting tentacle emerges and attaches to Will’s mouth, pumping an unknown substance into his body.
RELATED: ‘Stranger Things 5’ Trailer: Eleven Is Ready For Battle With Vecna On The Attack
“You and I, we are going to do such beautiful things together, William,” Vecna purrs as he strokes Will’s face as the first of Hawkins’ stolen children chokes on whatever the monster is forcing into him. “Such beautiful things.”
And…that’s all we get for now! It’s actually quite a significant reveal, considering that the Duffers have already said audiences will finally get all their questions answered about what the Upside Down is, how and why it exists, and what the heck Will had to do with any of it in this final season. The opening sequence taking us back to Season 1 suggests that everything the characters have endured thus far has been part of Vecna’s greater plan.
Just a few more weeks until audiences will start to untangle some of those answers when the first four episodes premiere on November 26, followed by three on Christmas Day and the series finale on New Year’s Eve. All episodes drop at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET, rather than at midnight.
RELATED: Netflix Sets ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ’85’ Voice Cast & First Look Photos Of Animated Spinoff