‘Stranger Things 5’: First Five Minutes Reveal Will Byers’ 1983 Disappearance
Netflix has unveiled the first five minutes of the long-awaited final season of Stranger Things, bringing fans back to the night of Will Byers’ disappearance in 1983 — but this time, Vecna is part of the scene.
Return to the Beginning
The footage was shown after the red carpet premiere on Thursday night. Unlike what many fans expected, the season opens not with a new storyline but a return to the past, revisiting the moment that began it all.
Inside the Hawkins Library and the Upside Down
The sequence begins in the Upside Down version of the Hawkins Library, a location teased in the latest trailer. This is where Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp) was discovered in Season 1 by his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour).
Time Leap and Flashback
The story of the new season is set 18 months after the events of Stranger Things 4, but creators Matt and Ross Duffer open with a flashback to November 12, 1983 — six days after Will originally went missing.
The Opening Scene
The premiere sequence features a digitally de-aged Noah Schnapp portraying 12-year-old Will inside the Upside Down. Cold, frightened, and exhausted, he quietly murmurs to himself a familiar tune by The Clash.
Will mutters the words to “Should I Stay or Should I Go” while trapped inside the eerie Upside Down version of Castle Byers.
This emotional callback connects the new season to the heart of the show’s first mystery, while revealing new layers of Will’s original ordeal now seen through Vecna’s presence.
Author’s Summary: The opening of Stranger Things 5 revisits Will Byers’ 1983 disappearance, linking past and present through Vecna’s shadowy involvement in the Upside Down.