Stranger Things Season 5: Guessing Survival Odds Of The Main Cast

Thursday saw the release of the final trailer for Stranger Things season 5 — the pop culture event of 2025 debuting on November 26th.

It’s a big shiny trailer featuring all our main cast, plus a few newer faces. It’s big, it’s epic, and like season 4, it has an ominous remix of an 1980s pop-rock hit. But that particular hit — Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever” had us worried for some of our favorite Hawkins residents. So let’s talk about it; who’s going to live, who’s going to die in Stranger Things season 5?

Mike and Nancy Wheeler

Of the main kids, let’s be real, the Wheelers are the most safe. Mike and Nancy have long been the emotional core of the show, and I think the siblings are extremely likely to survive. They’d be the perfect window into a post-Hawkins world in the inevitable epilogue that will end the series, and both Finn Wolfhard and Natalia Dyer have some of the strongest acting chops of the cast. They’re just about as safe as any character could be.

Odds they’ll die: 1,000,000,000:1

Jim Hopper

The adult co-lead of the show is almost definitely going to make it, especially because the other adult is on shaky ground in my opinion. David Harbour’s Hopper is the show’s dad (even more so than the actual dad of several characters). I would place him higher though if a death fake-out hadn’t been the end of the show’s third season. I don’t think the Duffer Brothers would have Hop go through everything he has just to kill him in the final season. But I do think he’s going to have the second biggest Big Damn Hero moment of the season at some point, and I can’t wait to see what it is.

Odds: 1,000,000:1

Max Mayfield

Max coming out of her coma is going to be one of the biggest emotional moments of the entire season, I guarantee it. In fact, I watched the trailer carefully a couple times to see if there’s obvious places where the editors CGI’ed Sadie Sink out. I can’t see her surviving the coma, just to be killed another way later in the season … but it is possible.

Odds: 1000:1

Robin Buckley and Erica Sinclair

These two supporting characters have become fan favorites, and have played bigger and bigger roles the longer they’ve been part of the cast. While their deaths would have a huge impact on the story, I think they’d be better left as survivors left to mourn their friends, and I’d love to see Maya Hawke and Priah Ferguson get those moments on screen. Just like Max, I think it’s possible, but unlikely. (I also initially included season 4 new addition Argyle here, but apparently Eduardo Franco confirmed he’s not returning for the final season.)

Odds: 500:1

Dustin Henderson

Now, here’s the point on the list where I’m starting to get a little nervous for our heroes. Dustin has grown from a sweet little goofball into the emotional core of the series. He’s been through hell and back, lost friends, and had to grow up much faster than any of his friends. Gaten Matarazzo has infused his character with so much life that he’s one of the show’s most iconic characters (to the point that he was the first lead we saw in the trailer). I think Dustin’s death would infuse the story with a massive amount of tragedy, but I also think the story would be stronger in the end with him surviving.

Odds: 100:1

The rest of the Wheelers

Karen and Holly Wheeler (Cara Buono and Nell Fisher, respectively) have often played important parts in the series, but never crucial (though Holly getting recast with Fisher might point to a big role for her this season). Meanwhile, Mr. Wheeler (Joe Chrest) has been such an ass that I didn’t even bother to look up his first name for this piece. While I think Mike and Nancy are safe, I think they’re going to lose at least one member of their immediate family. And honestly, I kind of hope it’s dad.

Odds: 50:1

Lucas Sinclair

Of the show’s main trio (turned quartet, turned quintet, turned sextet), I think Lucas is the least safe. He’s the member of the main kid cast who’s grown-up the least — even abandoning and shunning his friends for much of season 4 until the last possible moment (though abandoning your friends for the cool kids is part of growing up so I might take that back). I think we’ll see him get the arc he’s needed this season, giving Caleb McLaughlin the arc he’s deserved for years, and will end with him sacrificing himself for his friends — particularly girlfriend Max. It would be the perfect moment to end part one of the season, with a heroic sacrifice that will resonate for the rest of the season.

Odds: 10:1

Steve Harrington and Jonathan Byers

Joe Keery and Charlie Heaton have both grown so much as actors that I’d love to see either of them get a death scene. I also don’t think there’s any way both of their characters will survive, particularly as their love triangle with Nancy serves as one of the show’s biggest emotional hooks. I think we’ll see Nancy make her choice, but that choice will doom whichever of the boys she picks. Also, you have to admit they’re both the kind of people who would make heroic last stands to buy their friends and family precious moments. (And I kind of hate to say it, but I think Jonathan has the edge over Steve.)

Odds: 5:1

Joyce Byers

I love Joyce, and I love the performance Winona Ryder has given in the past decade as Joyce. I also think it’s extremely likely that she will step in place of one of the many characters that has become her family over the course of the show and sacrifice herself for them. The only way I don’t see that happening is if we lose Jonathan or Will. That family’s had too much tragedy for the show to take more than one of them.

Odds: 3:1

Will Byers and Eleven Hopper

Essentially the most important characters of the show, Will and El are both the keys to the plot hinted at in the trailer. I just don’t see any way that Noah Schnapp or Millie Bobby Brown’s characters will survive the final confrontation with Vecna/Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower). That said, I think this is an either/or situation. I don’t think there’s any way we’ll lose both characters, but I genuinely can’t decide which is more likely to be lost in the final confrontation.

Odds: 2:1

Murray Bauman

Hahahah, Brett Gelman’s obnoxious conspiracy theorist/investigator/creep is a goner by the end of the second episode, I guarantee it. I’m surprised he made it this long.

Odds: 1:1

Henry Creel/Vecna

Look, he’s the series’ big bad. The only alternative to him dying is some sort of banishment into the Upside Down that would prevent him from ever returning to our world. Which is essentially killing him. I’m not even going to put odds on it. Bower’s villain is a goner.

And good riddance.