Stranger Things 5: Ep 3-4 finished, three-part release in late fall

Episodes three and four of Stranger Things season five are finished, co-creator Ross Duffer announced this week, offering the first substantive glimpse of the final season and confirming a three-part release slated for late November and December. Duffer said on social media that Chapters Three and Four are "locked, mixed, scored, colored," adding that Volume One is done and teasing a pair of pivotal episodes: "The Turnbow Trap" and "Sorcerer."

Duffer described The Turnbow Trap as "the most classic Stranger Thingsy episode of the season," directed by Frank Darabont, who he said came out of retirement for the show. He called Sorcerer "MASSIVE, as big as any finale weve ever done, and the most logistically insane shoot of our lives. Were still recovering." The episode titles and comments were released alongside a broader outline of the season, which picks up in the fall of 1987 with Hawkins under military quarantine as the central characters unite to find and kill Vecna.

Showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer have framed the eight-episode season as both ambitious and personal. Ross said the production captured more than 650 hours of footage and likened the season to "eight blockbuster...