Stranger Things season 5 will finally arrive later this year, albeit halfway through 2025 now, we still don’t have an exact date. We have now waited over three years between seasons, even as Netflix said that the series was a “priority” for them following previous strikes. Other big shows with huge waits such as Squid Game and Wednesday, will both be out before it will.

Stranger Things season 4 was released on May 27 of 2022. I saw a post that said that the entire series of The Bear has aired between now and then (and season 4 is coming in a month). That got me thinking about what else has happened in the entertainment industry between seasons 4 and 5 in this absurdly long streaming season gap era.

Shows: Wednesday, House of the Dragon (both seasons), The Last of Us (both seasons), The Penguin, Shogun, The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power (both seasons), The Bear (all seasons)

Movies: Top Gun Maverick, The Batman, Avatar: The Way of Water, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Jurassic World: Dominion, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3, Barbenheimer

Games: Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarök, Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, Sifu, Immortality, Starfield, Final Fantasy XVI, Hogwarts Legacy

Nine MCU Movies: Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther, Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, Deadpool and Wolverine, Captain America Brave New World, Thunderbolts and imminently, The Fantastic Four.

Nine MCU Shows: Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, Loki (season 2), What If…? (season 2), Echo, Agatha All Along, Daredevil: Born Again, Ironheart (imminent)

Four DCEU Movies: Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash and Blue Beetle, and the transfer to the DCU and James Gunn with Superman

Eight Star Wars Shows: Andor (seasons 1 and 2), The Mandalorian (season 2), The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, Tales of the Jedi (season 2), The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew (no Star Wars movies, however, with Disney abandoning those for years).

You get the idea. We are going to be pushing three and a half years between Stranger Things seasons, which allegedly come out in 2025, but with no confirmed date yet, it might get pushed, and even if not, it may be broken into parts where one of those potentially airing in 2026. At this point, it will almost be a relief to see it end, and Netflix had better issue an hour-long “previously on” recap video.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.