#st s5 speculations

[itslikesearcingforsomething]

we are so safe oh my god we are SAFEEEEE

[galecstatic]

is this the most awaited wheeler siblings heart-to-heart talk that will destroy the lives of everyone

[fangirlandtheories]

Joe Keery had sleeves here on this shirt

But in the Q/A video from IG today there was no sleeves

Aka Steve is going to cut the damn sleeves off his shirt at some point this season.

[sillylittlerock]

fuck physics revision this is way more important

initial thoughts-

will, and therefore probably the byers family, are staying with the wheelers. hopper and el also could be there but i'm not sure.

holly will DEFINITELY be important this season. "the vanishing of holly wheeler", the leak of her talking to henry on the street, and now this bts photo confirms it for me. my girl is getting put through it this season. and will be crucial for the plot too.

mike's repressed emotions are going to be focused on this season i think!! from the look of it him and holly will (at first) be together a lot this season, so if she goes missing (likely ON HIS WATCH!!) the guilt he feels will be very very intense. perfect set up for his other trauma to come to light and be talked about, like they did with max in s4.

babysitter byler is all i needed in life i love this so much

WILL IS ALSO THERE, so maybe he will also feel some guilt after holly's disappearance?? how he couldn't help someone else and protect them from what he went through?

mike and will will almost certainly be a team / share the same plot this season - they clearly spend a lot of time together and will probably both feel guilt after holly goes missing, so will probably team up to save her.

this feels so full circle. the bikes, a child going missing, rooted in hawkins- it's definitely giving season one. and i'm SO HERE FOR IT

[erikiara80]

Little Jonwill! I know this could be fake, but I would love to see them. Eight yo Will? That would be 1979, the year Will drew the rainbowship, the year of the massacre.

I wonder when they built Castle Byers. It would be interesting if it was 1979.

Anyway. Little Jonwill! My favorite

[semitruckshrimp02]

okay i have a theory (i’m being too optimistic and grasping at straws)

there has been little to no behind the scene content for s5 of mike and will though there’s been plenty of other characters despite the duffer brothers saying that mike and will (along with hopper, eleven, and joyce) would be the like… “main” characters in s5

byler??? big byler reveal maybe??? byler next season???????

(im delusional)

[oatmilk-vampire]

So with this new stranger things s5 audio leak I'm ready to go full Charlie Day meme.

Everyone says the guy is screaming "Steve, you need to run!" And then saying it's either of the Byers brothers.

But my SISTER says she thinks it sounds like Dustin, and that makes SO much more sense to me.

AND here's where I get into my delulu stuff:

We know the the sixth episode is titled "Escape From Camazotz" and as we know the Camazotz is a literal death bat anthropomorphic bitch.

In my own film industry experience (stand-in/body double/script reader), usually they come up with episode titles as they either write the script or shoot the actual scenes.

SO what if this is episode 6, and what if Camazotz is Eddie freakin' Munson???

If my sister is right and it's Dustin, and if everyone's hearing is right and the voice is screaming "Steve", them why couldn't be a Kas!Eddie being mind controlled??

I know this may seem far fetched to some of yall but this is my theory.

[edmufics]

S5 Theory Part Three

SO

Here are my theories with all the info I have from The Dark Tower universe.

Disclaimer: Im not saying any of these are right, likely to happen, or that I necessarily even want them to happen. I just think that btwn learning ab TDT and rewatching stranger things, these are fun theories to consider!

*SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1-4 AHEAD*

*MENTIONS OF S5 BTS CONTENT AHEAD* I think S5 will come out on July 15th, 2025—the ninth anniversary! It will take place over the course of several months rather than a week or two like we have seen in the past. I think it will start in late summer, back-to-school time. I think we will see a lot more of Mr. Clark this season, and he will fill some of the scientist roles (along with new casting) we will be missing after S4's deaths. We will see a lot more flashbacks this season, either due to trying to keep Vecna out with positive memories or just reminiscing. Vecna will return to Hawkins lab at some point. Possibly a significant battle or it will be his lair. Vecna takes Holly, but I'm not sure he kills her (Like an 80% chance he does tho) I think with the increased army presence, we may see the kids lose the ability to see or visit Max (since she is a Venca victim). Nancy has a candy stripper/nurse outfit this season because they are trying to sneak in to see/save her in some way. I'm at about 60% on the chance of Kalli coming back. If she does, it will either help El train or help El defeat Vecna. Nancy detective journalist era, but she isn't going to leave for college. She would never just dip like that. Stobin or Nancy work at the radio station set we've seen. Hopper will either be stuck in hiding with El or in the army, but only as a means of gathering intel.

I think that people were not far off on the Kas theory. I think there will be a character that represents Kas, but it'll be Will. In S4 they talk about how Vecna doesn't kill his victims, he absorbs their abilities/souls. We also see that El can revive the dead (Max) in some way. That skill isn't practiced on her part, and we know Vecna is stronger than she is. I think Vecna kills Will and then revives him using memories like El did to Max, but only uses his darkest memories. These memories turn him against his friends, at which point he becomes Kas. Mike will be the key to getting Will back (since Mike is the heart). Mike will have to confront his romantic or platonic feelings for Will while reminding him of their good memories. This will lead to Will delivering the final blow to Vecna (like Kas) when he remembers.

I also think the idea of "Twinners" from The Talisman will come into play, but not quite in the same way. Instead of them all having Upside Down twins, I think Vecna will reanimate the corpses of his victims (since we've seen that the bodies are still in the Upside Down) and use these reanimated corpses to torture the MCs. Especially bc we know that it's all a hive mind so anyone killed by a part of Vecna's hive mind was technically killed by Vecna (depending on if thats how they wanna spin it). Specifically, I think Dustin will be either Vecna'd (but not killed) or have to see Eddie's reanimated corpse (fitting in with strange similarities between Eddie and Metallica's Eddie). Barb will return to torture Nancy, Bob returning for Joyce, etc.

In the Talisman universe, there is a plot where the person who opens the gate banishes himself to an alternate universe and closes the gate forever, forcing himself to leave behind everyone he loves. I think this is how El's story will end. She won't die but instead will have to stay in the Upside Down forever. In the end, we will see a crying Mike looking up and noticing the light above him glowing brightly, showing how he and El may continue communicating.

Characters I think could die:

Vicki (they loooove giving us a new character to fall in love with so they can brutally kill them that same season)

Steve (sacrificing himself for the Dustin, Robin, or Johnathan.) Holly (Maybe, it just seems too easy) Dr. Owens Vecna (Duh) Either Lucas or Max (I think Max may come back only to lose Lucas) Murray Ted Wheeler Wayne Munson (following Eddie's reanimated corpse into the upside down; I think that's how they reveal that Vecna reanimated the bodies)

Characters that I think are 100% going to survive: Mike Dustin (will try to be a hero like Eddie, but Steve will sacrifice himself to save Dustin (I think at the church)) Will Joyce Karen Wheeler

Anyone else, I'm not sure they are safe, but I also don't think they are going to die.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk!

[junoisthecoolest]

so bylers canon ig

[folkloremay]

if the three-headed dragon doesn't show up in s5 it'll be disappointing tbh

[bugsbenefit]

anytime people reblog my hellfire s5 post i can go back to being amazed that they made TWO separate hellfire photo props and how they deliberately switched to a version that includes Dustin, Lucas, and Mike for all the wanted posters, instead of sticking to the presumably older yearbook picture we see them have at first

for reference: the hellfire club photo we get first, with Eddie and the members of his band, but also others like the people on the right who presumably graduated

and the hellfire photo we see during Jason's speech for the first time, now featuring the party, which also ends up plastered on the wanted posters in places like the gun store

like, damn, they really went out of their way to make two separate yearbook photo props and showed Jason deliberately went out of his way to find a newer photo to include all of current hellfire for his satanism speech accusing them of ritualistic murder. man did his research

and how that alone already shows how important it was to even the prop department to drag the party into the hellfire mess headfirst since they already had a photo of Eddie in hellfire Jason could have used. but no

they deliberately update to a version including the party

it's just such a fun detail to me bc it's such a background thing too. they just switch to a photo of modern day hellfire when Jason starts accusing the whole club instead of just Eddie, no big deal. with the only exception being the party being on them, since it's their first year in higschool. that change was really for them wasn't it, so fun to me

[jazz-penguin]

At first David Jenkins, OFMD creator, liked my comment on insta, then we've got a Stranger things season 5 bts video with Mike and El, probably, breaking up. 🤯💃🏼What a day to be alive!

[galecstatic]

season 5 is definitely the most anticipated will byers era. we finally gon see his pov alone in the upside down and it would probably break everyone's heart to see how much he struggled and survived the other side for a week. imagine a kid managing to stay alive with no food in a place succumb to darkness all alone and scared and freezing inside the comfort of castle byers is already a heartbreaking thought. our brave lil will against all odds and it's gonna be shown in final season. i'm expecting that we also gon see parallels of s2 on how will byers delivered, ate, and left no crumbs in his plate for s5. we've been praying hard for this shit y'all. it's gonna be all about will byers and the others and we love to see it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh and let him say fuck and hold a gun again too

[sillylittlerock]

ok so mike has a shovel and a backpack. they're in a field. i've seen a few people say they could be digging up the tunnels from s2 which i 100% agree with! the two of them are definitely a team this season, and we know already holly is involved, so could the tunnels be related to them looking for holly? or could it be them trying to understand will's connection to vecna / the upside down better?

[erikiara80]

September 8 could be a big Fringe Easter Egg and a hint at what happened in the past

A gate opened on November 6, 1983, and another opened on September 8, 1979, but interestingly, there are also many references to winter, ice, freezing to death and 1976. A year Ross Duffer connected to gates and a wrinkle in time, here (here the mentions of 1976, starting with the reporter in S1 saying that someone drowned in the quarry "seven years ago")

In Fringe there's a character named September who:

saves Walter and alternate Peter from drowning in a frozen lake, where Walter opened a portal to the parallel universe

remembers, thanks to Walter, what love is and that he loves his son. Michael. Yeah, he remembers that "the boy is important, he must live" (he's the heart), and decides to protect him (Michael gives him the courage to fight on)

September's story

All the mentions of the name Mike in ST. And let's not forget the many mentions of the name Peter!

Speaking of Michael and lakes

...and remembering what love is. There are countless ST-Fringe parallels, but I particularly love this one between Byler and Polivia. After the accident in the lake, Peter is unhappy. He almost dies, trying to go back to his world. But then he finds Olivia's sketchbook in Walter's lab, and his life changes when he meets her for the first time. He comforts her when she tells him about her violent stepfather (hello, Lonnie), and that's when he decides to accept his new life.

Same shirt. Here Mike believes that Will drowned, and he's looking at his drawing, when El channels Will. And then Mike is even more determined to save him.

At the end of S3, Peter sacrifices himself to save the two universes, and is erased from existence. But then he misteriously reappears in S4, in the same lake where he should've drowned. It's Olivia's love that brought him back. She couldn't completely forget him.

Stranger Things, S5. If there's really a time loop, what happened in the past will probably happen again in the end. Full circle etc. And like in Fringe, love will save the world.

But back to the hints at what might have happened in the past.

S4 starts with a boy on a bike. Then there's a subtle mention of a lake, birthdays and "sending your copy" in the crossword puzzle (lots of mentions of that, connected to twin imagery) I'm thinking about the two Peters in Fringe and the "switched at birth" and "swapping places" mentions in ST.

The number 8, imo, is a reference to Will's age when he drew the rainbowship, and Kali. So mind control, the power to make people see or not see what you want/ ketamine, the mean green. Basically, this seems to be about El, but we can't trust what we see. This is definitely about Will too.

There's also this parallel that seems to connect the massacre in September to a winter day. Interesting.

So many references to lakes and cold water, and people drowning

Ice water and the poster of Salzburger Festpiele -> Der Talisman, 1976

They also make a subtle connection between Rink-o-mania, which parallels the Nina flashbacks, to frozen water, when Argyle says that it could be an ice skate

In this scene of Frankenstein, Maria drowns in a lake

Barb vanishes in a pool, Joyce and Hopper mourn Bob in her room, next to Will's drawing of Lover's Lake. There's young Billy and the rip current, and the lyrics of Moby's song, when Will and Max are dying.

I don't wanna swim forever... When it's cold I'd like to die...

When El is in Nina, Owens says that she's drowning. When Dustin, Erica and Lucas talk about Mothergate, and Dustin says This is it! This is the answer!, Karen enters the kitchen and asks the cop if he just wants water. Then they talk in front of the painting of a lake.

I don't think it's a coincidence that one of the gates in S4 opens in a lake, or that in that sequence we see Patrick die and El being revived. Also, Steve calls it Mamagate (El sees Terry in 4x07- another connection between the gate in 1979 and lakes) and Dustin calls it Watergate.

The Duffers said that in S4 they start to show their hand, and I noticed that there are now many connections between birthdays, lakes, gates and 1976.

The mention of Lakeview in the crossword puzzle, in 4x01

The scenes at Rink-o-mania, which parallel the Nina flashbacks, happen on March 22

the massacre and gate in 1979: connection to Will's 8th birthday

Mamagate-Watergate: connection to the memory of a birth (the sparks and smoke El sees imo are the memory of a wrinkle in time)

A reference to a birth in the mid-1970s that should be impossible. Wasn't El born in 1971? But in 2x05 she reads that Brenner stole Terry's baby daughter in the mid-1970s, not early 70s (imo, in 1976)

So, this is my theory (I could be wrong, of course)

Everything is connected to what happened to Will

In S1 they hint that Will was the subject of the experiments and I think that's the truth. I think something bad happened when he was five, in 1976, that involved Lonnie, Hopper, a car accident, a lake. Maybe he was already the subject of the program, or maybe they chose him because of the accident (I'm thinking about the movie Source Code) Maybe he was dying and they saved him with some drug, or some technology that manipulates time and space. I don't know. But I think whatever happened to him, something extremely traumatic, what they did to him changed everything.

And if the experiments created a time loop, maybe some people who died (Hopper?) or were born stillborn (El? who feels like she doesn't belong anywhere?), are now alive, but stuck in a cycle, a nightmare that never ends. And the UD could be Will's mindspace, the physical manifestation of his trauma, a place of decay and death, a dark, cold reflection of home. And El has taken his place as the lab kid, because she was brought back when Will died, and now she has to fight the monsters/trauma he hides from, until he accepts the good and the bad and becomes whole.

There's more to say, but this post is already long

[number1abbasupporter]

the will dying theory scares me so much and honestly any of them dying scares me they should just all live plssss