Maryland Teen To Serve 1 Year In Prison After Detailing School Shooting Plans
A 19-year-old high school student who prosecutors said obsessively wrote about carrying out mass shootings at two Maryland schools will serve one year of a 10-year prison sentence after being found guilty of threatening to commit mass violence.
Andrea 'Alex' Ye, 19, of Rockville was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison, with all but 12 months suspended, after his detailed writings about carrying out an attack were flagged to law enforcement while in an inpatient psychiatric facility early last year.
Ye, who had previously been hospitalized for threatening to 'shoot up a school' and homicidal and suicidal ideation, had a 'consistent obsession with school shootings and school shooters' that he documented in a 129-page 'manifesto' and shared with a fellow patient, leading to his arrest, said Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy at a press conference Wednesday.
'Some of the things that were in the manifesto included things like, 'I want to shoot up my school. I've been preparing for it the last few months,'' said McCarthy.
Ye fantasized in his writings about gaining access to his father's gun case, making bombs, and becoming a 'romanticized' serial killer who receives 'tons of love letters' and a Netflix documentary, according to the criminal charges.
'Maybe the most chilling thing of all, the only reason why he didn't do this is because he didn't have access to a gun,' McCarthy said back in January after Ye's conviction by a Montgomery County judge. 'He said, 'If I had access to a gun, this would have happened.''
As part of his sentence, Ye will serve five years of supervised probation after his release from prison. He will also have to undergo mental health treatment, perform community service, stay away from the two schools he threatened, and stay off the app Discord, which prosecutors said he routinely used to search for 'mass shootings' and 'school shootings.' Ye has already been behind bars for 14 months since his arrest last year but he waived his right to credit for that time already served.
McCarthy expressed regret and frustration about Ye's prison sentence, arguing that rather than spending another year in a detention facility, he should receive long-term psychological treatment. He said a court hearing has been scheduled for September so that his defense can propose a supervision program for him upon his release.
Attempts to reach Ye's defense attorney for comment Thursday were not immediately successful.
'These issues don't go away quickly and therefore I think longer-term treatment for a lot of our young people, Mr. Ye among them, is what we need to offer them, and that's what we were trying to offer them today,' McCarthy said of his office's recommendation for Ye to attend a local youthful offender program.
McCarthy did credit the judge for offering to meet with Ye every two weeks during his probationary period to ensure that he gets the attention that he needs. He called that 'unusual step' a possible 'reflection of the judge's concern that she recognizes that there's a real danger if there's not proper supervision here when he goes back into the community.'
'Being on probation does not necessarily mean what I think some people naively think,' he said, while emphasizing the workload those tasked with supervising offenders face. 'They are tremendously overworked and overburdened in terms of people they supervise in the community.'
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Refinery29
2 hours ago
- Refinery29
Empowerment or Erasure? Karol G's 'Latina Foreva' Sparks Debate Among Latinas
When Karol G dropped her newest single and music video ' Latina Foreva' on May 22, it became undoubtedly clear that the Colombian pop reggaeton artist sought to make an instant Latina pride anthem. The song's hook samples the 'king of reggaeton' Don Omar's 2003 smash hit 'Dile' and features a few seconds of a flamenco-style guitar and violin arrangement that evokes those heard in fellow Colombian artist Shakira's 'Beautiful Liar.' While many fans felt empowered and excited by Karol's lyrics and self-love, others pointed out the glaring lack of Black Latina representation in the visuals and shared mixed feelings about the message of the song. As Karol dances in nothing but a bikini and ski boots alongside a group of other women — all white, thin and curvy, with a similarly bronzed skin tone who also happen to be wearing nothing but bikinis at the snowy ski resort — she sings about a girls' night out with a Colombian, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, and Dominican who all have 'spice' and curves that 'don't even exist in NASCAR.' With lyrics that are equally as focused on the women's appearances as the music video is, some listeners loved Karol's focus on 'tetas y nalgas' and embraced her comfort in her skin as an empowering display of self-acceptance. Following the May 8 release of Karol's 'Mañana Fue Bonito' documentary on Netflix earlier this year, where she vulnerably opened up about the highs and lows of her music career, 'Latina Foreva' marks a new confident and sensual era for the artist. But other Latine fans in diaspora communities and in Latin America were concerned Karol's words perpetuated stereotypes on what makes Latinas desirable, even going as far as saying that the song reinforces a dangerous myth about Latina hypersexuality. Somos spoke with five Latina women to explore how 'Latina Foreva' uplifts — or overlooks — the complexities of identity and representation. Jennifer Mota, Dominican, Philadelphia When I first saw the promotional clip and identified the lack of representation, my automatic response was "this is tiring." It didn't represent a shared celebration. I had no desire to listen to the song. Although it is framed as a dedication to "Latinas," the selected women — while all stunning — were an underwhelming choice as it feels exclusionary rather than celebratory. The visual is more of a reflection of what the media and society accepts as "Latina features." It mirrors industry standards. ' "Although it is framed as a dedication to 'Latinas,' the selected women — while all stunning — were an underwhelming choice as it feels exclusionary rather than celebratory." jennifer mota ' Simply put: Racism is a global issue. The perspective that it's only a U.S. issue overlooks how white supremacy manifests differently by region. Clearly, the privilege of whiteness and erasure of Black and Indigenous features are not exclusive to the United States when Latin media and music still follow a caste system that prioritizes people with a proximity to whiteness. It absolutely impacts the lived experiences of Black Latinas and their opportunities. Colorism and Eurocentric beauty standards are deeply rooted in colonial history and still influence media and music today. We can't let this kind of societal gaslighting take up space and control narratives; it erases populations, history, and lived experiences. If one of the most visible Latin artists and her team can't understand how her influence erases and perpetuates industry standards, then the intention of the song was never to create a love letter to Latinidad as a whole but rather to uplift the ways Latinas are only celebrated through the lens of a white male perspective. It's neither visually accurate or factual. From a marketing and branding perspective, it's not that hard. To not intentionally pick a mix of shades, body types, and features is a reminder that it isn't a thought at all and fails to honor the beauty and complexity of our cultures. Melissa Vargas Deñó, Dominican, New York When I saw the song title, I felt like "oh yes, give me an anthem." Who doesn't love an anthem celebrating who you are and your culture? And being Dominicana, when I heard 'una domi que lo mueva rico … mmm,' I was like, 'That's me!' As a relatively new mother, there are moments when you wonder if you'll ever feel sexy or like yourself again. Yes, there's a physical transformation, but there's also a deep internal one. Sometimes your sense of womanhood gets blurry amid the chaos of caretaking and the changes your body goes through postpartum. Songs like this let me access that version of myself again. And I think that's part of what modern motherhood really is — redefining who we are on our own terms. When someone like Karol G takes the spotlight and owns her sensuality, it sparks way more controversy than it would if a man did the exact same thing. But to me, she's not just being provocative, she's reclaiming the narrative. She's in control of how she's seen and how she expresses herself, and that's powerful. Especially in reggaeton, a genre that's historically been male-dominated, it's refreshing and exciting to see women like Karol carving out space and shifting the energy. This type of song specifically is more for the girls than the male gaze. As women, we deserve to express ourselves through music — whether it's about sensuality, sex, or anything else — just as freely as men do. And if it makes us feel empowered? Even better. ' "As a relatively new mother, there are moments when you wonder if you'll ever feel sexy or like yourself again. Yes, there's a physical transformation, but there's also a deep internal one. ... Songs like this let me access that version of myself again. And I think that's part of what modern motherhood really is — redefining who we are on our own terms." Melissa Vargas Deñó ' I absolutely acknowledge that there was a lack of diversity in the music video, which is a real bummer because I know that in other videos like "Provenza" there is both skin tone and body diversity, it's one of the reasons why that song is one of my favorites of Karol's. I don't know where the disconnect happened, if it was with the casting or timing, but I think she and the team behind it could have put more effort into showing more diverse women. This is meant to be a really fun song celebrating Latinas, our culture, and who we are, but it definitely missed that mark with that aspect in the music video. Nicole Froio, Colombian-Brazilian, Rio de Janeiro In 12 or so years writing about Latine culture as a Latina woman, I have seen the discussion on whether Latina artists are "too sexual" come and go. It's always a point of contention in the community and I totally understand why. I also have experiences with racialized sexual harassment. But over the years, I've started to question whether it's about how Latinas present themselves that defines us as "sexual" or if it's the racialized hatred of white Americans that transforms us into sexualized objects to be consumed. It bothers me that Latina women's sexuality has to be measured against whether white Americans or Europeans will think of us as sexually available. I think the idea we have to model ourselves so we aren't seen in a particular way borders on conservatism. I understand the controversy, but I need Latinas in our community to understand that Karol G's video isn't to blame for sexual harassment and assault against Latinas — the people who harass and assault are. Karol G skiing half-naked doesn't change half a century of imperialism, colonialism, and sexualized racism against Latinas. ' "Karol G's video isn't to blame for sexual harassment and assault against Latinas — the people who harass and assault are. Karol G skiing half-naked doesn't change half a century of imperialism, colonialism, and sexualized racism against Latinas." Nicole Froio ' No matter how much clothes we wear or don't wear, white Americans and Europeans have historically seen us as animals, as objects who are so sexual that we would never say no to them. Are we really saying that Latinas can't sing and dance about how we are seen sexually because it'll give white men the wrong impression? Amy Quichiz, Colombian-Peruvian, Los Angeles I believe this song can spark discussions about the problems we face with the concept of Latinidad, the internalized racism and prejudiceness, and patriarchal values that women, men, and people hold within our own community. However, it is also important to call out: some people just hate women and it shows. There is a difference between having valid points to a conversation with historical context of the values and traditions we have created and embedded in our community, and another thing is simply saying Karol G does not add any value to the reggaeton genre because of her lyrics. For so long, reggaeton has been a male-dominated genre. Men have always been able to rap about our bodies and how our curves are beneficial to them. Personally, I love hearing Karol G talk about her boobs because I can relate, and fuck yeah, I love them for myself. She admires her own body, which has often been sexualized by men in this industry. To me, this song is for the girls and nobody else. It's about loving yourself, being proud of where you come from, owning your curves for yourself and for no one else, and knowing that you're hot. ' "To me, this song is for the girls and nobody else. It's about loving yourself, being proud of where you come from, owning your curves for yourself and for no one else, and knowing that you're hot." Amy Quichiz ' In the beginning of her song she says, 'ahora todos quieren una colombiana, una…' This line addresses the othering people have always done with Latinas, and still continue to do. There were many moments where I grew up and started to not be proud of being Latina because I knew whiteness was the ideal beauty standards. I love being Colombian and Peruvian, and I romanticize it. Having that be my world, and get this song to my core, is something a non-Latine person will ever understand. Mariel Mejia, Dominican, New York I was genuinely looking forward to the song and video, especially after recently watching her Netflix documentary. I'm not a Karol G stan, but I respect her success and was curious to see what she would release next. But as soon as I saw the lack of diversity in the video, I felt turned off and skipped it before it even ended. I called out the erasure of Black Latina women because it was glaring and felt intentional. Claiming to celebrate Latinas as a whole while excluding dark-skinned, visibly Black Latinas on a global stage only reinforces the idea that we don't belong in the mainstream narrative of Latinidad. All artists are subject to criticism, and this isn't about Karol G being a woman or expressing her sexuality. Personally, her being provocative wasn't even on my radar. I listen to artists like Tokischa, who are just as, if not more, sexually explicit. What stood out to me was the lack of diversity in who was chosen to represent 'Latinas.' The video pushed the same dated narrative that Latinas are all sexy, spicy, bronze, and nothing else. That type of representation isn't just overdone, it contributes to real-world fetishization and harm. Pair that with the lack of racial and body diversity, and the whole thing felt like it was stuck in a 2005 media playbook. ' "The video pushed the same dated narrative that Latinas are all sexy, spicy, bronze, and nothing else. That type of representation isn't just overdone, it contributes to real-world fetishization and harm. Pair that with the lack of racial and body diversity, and the whole thing felt like it was stuck in a 2005 media playbook." Mariel Mejia ' Reggaeton was born from Black and Caribbean roots, yet the genre has long centered lighter-skinned artists as it entered the mainstream. This isn't just about Karol G; it's a systemic issue in an industry dominated by men who've rarely challenged the erasure of Black Latinas. Karol is one of the few successful women in reggaeton, and while that matters, it doesn't absolve her. She still benefits from a system that rewards proximity to whiteness and sidelines the very women whose culture this music comes from. She didn't create the problem, but she and other white Latinas certainly are not disrupting it either.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Are Music and Other Celebrity Films Killing the Documentary?
Glance at the list of top contenders for the nonfiction special this Emmy season and you'll find some big musical talent: Bruce Springsteen. Celine Dion. John Williams. The Beatles. Yet far from a thrilling foray into the modern canon, these Rock and Roll Hall of Fame excursions suggest a world in which nonfiction TV has become an exercise in brand management, say documentary leaders, marginalizing robust storytelling and journalism. More from The Hollywood Reporter Roy Wood Jr. Mocks White House, CNN and Patti LuPone in Peabody Awards Monologue How Reginald Hudlin and Shola Lynch Put Together the Greatest Call Sheet Ever Questlove Reveals the Standout Musical Performance He Omitted From 'Ladies & Gentlemen ... 50 Years of SNL Music' - And Why The Emmys documentary special once covered a wide range of social topics. Beginning some 25 years ago, it included the stories of Vietnam POWs and prison cover-ups, child beauty-pageant contestants and racial inequities. But in recent years this has morphed. In 2024, four of the five nominees were authorized celebrity biographies. The year before? The same. Don't count on much changing this season: Artist-friendly music docs flood the space. 'A lot of this is the shift to streaming where companies are looking for names that are reliable and global, and what's being said in the films doesn't really matter,' says Thom Powers, a veteran documentary programmer at Toronto, Doc NYC and other festivals. 'It becomes less about content or rigor and more about marketing.' That these shifts are happening at a time of crisis — from social injustice to climate disasters to the slashing of the federal safety net — makes the tragedy that much greater, say nonfiction experts. Documentaries are unavailable at the exact moment they're needed most. Three veteran filmmakers, who all asked not to be identified because they did not want to jeopardize even hypothetical partnerships, expressed their concern and pointed to the shift in the doc power base from onetime rulers PBS and HBO to Netflix, Disney and Apple, which they say prioritize polish and name recognition. Some of the diminishment, they say, can also be traced to when streamers began running commercials, as Netflix did in late 2022, giving them a weaker stomach for content that might alienate advertisers. What's more, these platforms sometimes pay their subjects, turning them into de facto directors. After so many decades when artists, actors and athletes were forced to cede control to the companies, record labels and teams they work for, the pendulum has swung the other way. Not that the companies don't have their say: A film's need for music rights and the increasingly tight oversight by the entities that control them can mean even basic humanizing details are left out. Many nonfiction films these days are about only what the subject wants us to see — less documentaries than documercials. The crisis came to the fore in the fall with the revelation that Ezra Edelman, the creative force behind the Emmy-winning 2016 docuseries O.J.: Made in America, had directed a similarly ambitious piece for Netflix about the beautiful genius and alleged malevolent manipulations (and worse) of Prince. But with both the lawyers and rights-management company Primary Wave that were in charge of the musician's estate worried about the effects on Prince's catalog sales, at least some among the estate overseers reportedly threatened to use a clause in the contract that would require the nine-hour film to be cut down to six. The move led to the completed piece being permanently shelved. A new, more burnished authorized movie not directed by Edelman will now rise in its place. One hardly needs a nine-hour plumbing of the dark soul of Paisley Park to understand what's being lost. Time and again, the artist-approved film glides past the meatiest material. Of the Springsteen-centric Road Diary, The Hollywood Reporter's review offered that 'an in-depth excavation or an exhaustive accounting, this is not.' Of Music by John Williams, The Guardian said, 'The man behind the maestro remains elusive.' Of I Am: Celine Dion, Variety noted that the movie was 'managed to within an inch of its life…there's a sense the filmmaker didn't want to include anything her subject wouldn't approve of.' The shift is surprisingly recent. Just six years ago, the winner of the Emmy for doc special was Leaving Neverland, HBO's unflinching look at alleged Michael Jackson abuses from two alleged victims — a far cry from last year's winner about the genius of Jim Henson that was authorized by his family and came out from Disney. The company was doubtless happy not to deal with Neverland-level legal headaches. (There does still seem to be journalism within certain narrow documentary genres, like true crime, which recently yielded Liz Garbus' robust Netflix docuseries Gone Girls.) Doc-world veterans point to the size of the streamers as a culprit. 'It's a difficult environment now in the United States for controversial content,' says Alex Gibney, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker (Going Clear won the nonfiction special Emmy in 2015). 'With consolidation comes a belief that you can talk to everybody, so you don't want to offend anybody.' Gibney's own journalistic film about Benjamin Netanyahu, The Bibi Files, couldn't find a major network or streamer at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, joining another acclaimed TIFF work, Steve Pink's anti-Trump doc The Last Republican, in the distribution desert. Instead, filmmakers say the documentaries that land big deals are well-meaning but ultimately unrigorous — fan worship in auteurist clothing. Serving fans is hardly a crime, of course, and many of the music films can charm or educate the faithful. But filmmakers say they worry that these soft-focus looks are crowding out serious work. And they ruefully register the irony that artists whose genius came from exploring messy contradictions often wind up with treatments largely free of them. The music industry personalities behind these movies maintain that their efforts serve creativity in their own way, and that while they may have a measured hand in how they handle sensitive or controversial material, they still aim to cast an illuminating light. 'The artists have to be willing to tell their story, and that means the good and the bad, the wins and the struggles,' says Tom Mackay, president of premium content at Sony Music Entertainment, which has been behind a host of recent music docs, including films on Cyndi Lauper, June Carter Cash, Luther Vandross and this year's Celine Dion picture. 'It can't be a two-hour victory lap.' Mackay acknowledges that a built-in audience is part of the appeal in a difficult media environment. Distributors can count on 'that global fan base to migrate to that platform to watch that film,' he says. While the presence of these movies is held up as an example of journalism marginalization, those involved with them say they're actually responding to a deterioration in reporting culture and partly even addressing it. 'Journalism — especially music journalism — has changed; there aren't as many music outlets and not nearly as many in-depth articles about musicians as there used to be,' says Deborah Klein, a manager at Primary Wave whose clients include Melissa Etheridge and Cypress Hill, both of whom have been the subjects of recent docs. 'This is a way to get to know them a little better.' Still, many of the projects are driven by business models. Conglomerates with music catalogs don't need to pay licensing fees, eliminating a main budgetary expense. They then get paid when they sell their movie to a platform and grab another bite at the revenue apple when the ensuing popularity leads to increased streams or album sales — a triumph less of cinema than synergy. It is difficult to avoid the monetizing truth that Disney+ is the company putting out the story of Star Wars composer John Williams or that NBC streaming arm Peacock is behind Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music. A 'universe' logic abides: Just as Disney produces Marvel and Star Wars shows by the bucket, it's following the template in nonfiction, peddling three movies to which it owns the rights, Michael Lindsay-Hogg original 1970 Let It Be, Peter Jackson's four-hour 2021 restoration of the footage from that film The Beatles: Get Back, and, now, the Scorsese-produced Beatles '64. Any company worth its salt engages in cross-promotion. But producing and distributing films with a commoditized-package strategy for a band that spent much of its career fighting commoditized packaging can set off the irony meter. Welcome to the Lennonverse. Natalia Nastaskin, chief content officer of Primary Wave, says that while 'we do hope that there's impact on catalog,' she also believes 'there's an opportunity for revelatory storytelling' with these movies. She called them 'another form of artistic expression.' But documentary directors say the approach makes for a very different environment than the one they're used to. 'Getting called into a meeting on these projects, you can sometimes feel more like you're filling a marketing hole than offering an artistic vision,' says one. Sheila Nevins, the former HBO executive and so-called 'godmother' of the modern documentary who has been nominated for the Emmy nonfiction special some 30 times, says she has been disheartened by the business and creative tilt in the past several years. 'The documentary is in hiding,' she says flatly. Still, she believes that even if the biggest streamers don't take many risks, a groundswell of documentarians as well as audiences eager to understand the challenges facing the country will emerge to resurrect the form. 'Just because these companies don't want to go too deep into the water doesn't mean docs are coming to an end,' Nevins notes, suggesting the possibility of private investment to produce and distribute films. 'These filmmakers will come back with their fists on fire. And they're going to punch very hard.' This story first appeared in a May stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
Elle
2 hours ago
- Elle
'Stranger Things' 5: What We Know So Far About The Final Season
All good things must come to an end—even Stranger Things. The hit Netflix sci-fi thriller, which first arrived in the summer of 2016, will conclude with its fifth season, which has no release date yet. The show's creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, announced the news with a bittersweet letter to fans on February 17, 2022. 'Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,' they wrote. 'At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but—as you'll soon see for yourselves—we are now hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last.' FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE After Stranger Things' season 4 premiered in 2022 (with quite the jam-packed finale), the wait for the next and final chapter continues. Here's what we know so far. Season 5 will premiere in November 2025, with four episodes coming out on November 26, followed by three episodes on Christmas, and the finale on New Year's Eve, ending a nearly three-year-long wait since season 4. In May 2023, the Writer's Guild of America voted to strike for fairer wages and other issues facing TV and screenplay writers, such as the use of AI and the 'mini-rooms' that have become the norm, making it far more difficult for writers to earn a living. The Duffer brothers announced via the show's official Twitter account that they would be halting production in support of the WGA and the writers on the picket line, further delaying the release of season 5. 'Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins,' they explained. 'While we're excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then -- over and out. #wgastrong.' The SAG strike, which ran until November of 2023, also delayed production. Stranger Things reportedly resumed filming in January 2024. Production began on Jan. 8, 2024, with writers sharing a photo of the cast gathered together with the Duffer Brothers. Photos taken on Thursday, January 18, and posted by TMZ, show the cast filming in Atlanta, with David Harbour and Winona Ryder coming to set and the kids shooting emotional final scenes for the series. In one picture, Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard can be seen having a conversation on top of a hill. Others take place on a radio station set. They reached the halfway point of filming in July, which Netflix announced with a behind-the-scenes video from set. The footage teases a few things: Vecna is back, the kids are in high school, and there are some pretty massive set pieces. The actors also reflect on their journeys with Stranger Things. Millie Bobby Brown says, 'I started when I was 10. I'm not turning 20 years old. Feels very weird.' On Dec. 20, 2024, Netflix announced that filming on the final season had wrapped, sharing some adorable behind-the-scenes pics of the cast and crew. Most of the main cast is expected to return, including Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Noah Schnapp (Will), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Sadie Sink (Max), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Joe Keery (Steve), Priah Ferguson (Erica), and Winona Ryder (Joyce). And at least one new cast member will join in season 5, as Netflix announced during its 2023 TUDUM event: Terminator actress Linda Hamilton. While announcing the halfway point of filming, Netflix also shared three new additions to the Stranger Things 5 cast: Nell Fisher (Bookworm), Jake Connelly (Between the Silence), and Alex Breaux (Waco: The Aftermath). For her part, Brown is ready to return—but only once more. She admitted to Seventeen that she's eager for season 5 to be her last. 'I'm definitely ready to wrap up,' she said. 'I feel like there's a lot of the story that's been told now. It's been in our lives for a very long time. But I'm very ready to say goodbye to this chapter of my life, and open new ones up.' Brown added, 'I'm able to create stories myself that are important to me and focus on the bigger picture. But I'm really grateful [for the show].' But she was a bit mournful when the end finally came. On Friday, December 20, she shared an emotional video in which she is thanking the cast and crew on Instagram, along with a bunch of pictures from her years on set. 'Isn't graduation supposed to bring relief? Like you're glad to leave behind the teachers and classmates. Not me,' she said in the black-and-white video. 'I am nowhere near ready to leave you guys. I love each and every one of you and I will forever carry the memories and bonds we created together as a family. I love you, thank you.' Brown got teary during her speech and was met with applause and cheers. How do you sum up this epic story, which transcends dimensions and stretches far beyond the borders of Hawkins, Indiana? The Duffers have a plan; we're just not privy to it yet. We do know one thing, though: Expect tears. 'We do have an outline for season 5 and we pitched it to Netflix and they really responded well to it,' Ross Duffer told The Wrap in May 2022. 'I mean, it was hard. It's the end of the story. I saw executives crying who I've never seen cry before and it was wild.' Actor David Harbour, who plays Hopper, had previously confirmed to Variety that he'd learned the season 5 ending and thought it 'quite moving and quite beautiful.' In the Duffer Brothers' February 2022 letter to fans, they added, 'There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes.' Might that mean a spin-off in the future? 'But first we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension called the Upside Down. As always, we are gracious for your patience and your support.' The showrunning duo also confirmed there would be no 'reset' going into season 5. Matt Duffer told Empire, 'Usually at the end of a season, we tie things up with a nice bow, before a little tease that says, 'Hold on, something is unraveling.' As we move into season 5, we won't have to do that. There won't be a reset from where we finish this season [season 4].' And the Duffers kept their word: Season 4 ends with a cliffhanger, as the Hawkins crew prepares for one last battle with the Upside Down. We can also expect Will Byers to come out. As actor Noah Schnapp confirmed to Variety, 'it's 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike,' later adding, 'There's so many different things they have to address. Obviously, we hope for a coming out scene, and I also want to see them address this connection to the Mind Flayer and how that fits into the world. And I've always been wondering, why was Will the first victim and the first one captured?' Vecna isn't necessarily gone for good. Jamie Campbell Bower told NME, 'I don't think he's slunk off licking his wounds in misery. He's rebuilding, and he's out for blood.' He could stronger than ever in season 5. As for Eleven, we don't know what's going to happen to her in the final season, but Millie Bobby Brown seems to know her character's fate, and it's making fans nervous. In March 2024, the actress spoke with Capital FM about the series' conclusion. 'I haven't read the end,' she said. 'I know what happens to my character because I kind of forced myself into the writers room.' 'Basically, I messaged the directors, "Can I come over and have a meeting with you?" And then I came over, and there was a whiteboard,' she explained. 'I just saw my ending and thought, "Oooooh," and then I walked away very slowly.' The internet was nervous about her reaction, believing that Elle may be in for a dark finale. During Netflix's 2025 preview in January, Matt Duffer said that the final season is 'our most personal story. It was super intense and emotional to film—for us and for our actors. We've been making this show together for almost ten years. There was a lot of crying. There was SO much crying. The show means so much to all of us, and everyone put their hearts and souls into it. And we hope—and believe—that passion will translate to the screen.' The Stranger Things writers hinted that there'll be eight episodes when they tweeted a photo of a whiteboard separated into eight columns, each numbered from episode 1-8. They later tweeted the first page of the script for season 5, episode 1 on Nov. 6. It's titled 'Chapter 1: The Crawl.' The episodes will probably be shorter than season 4's super-sized ones—except for the finale. 'The only reason we don't expect to be as long is, this season [season 4], if you look at it, it's almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery. You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they're struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve's trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in season 5],' Matt Duffer said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2022, per Deadline. When it comes to the series finale, 'We're more likely to do what we did here, which is to just have a 2.5 hour episode,' he added. During a preview for Netflix's slate in January 2025, Ross said that 'this is our biggest and most ambitious season yet. It's like eight blockbuster movies.' Netflix teased the episode titles in the video below. Probably not immediately after the events in season 4, if that's what you're expecting. Ross Duffer told TVLine in 2022, 'I'm sure we will do a time jump.' Which makes sense, given how quickly our lead actors are growing up. 'Ideally, we'd have shot [seasons 4 and 5] back to back,' Ross added, 'but there was just no feasible way to do that.' Sure enough, the duo confirmed that there will be a one-year time jump between the events in seasons 4 and 5. Season 5 will be set in the fall of 1987. Yes. We just don't know what it will be about yet. (Though Finn Wolfhard has apparently already figured it out.) 'There's a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel,' Ross Duffer told Variety. 'I think actually we're going to start delving into that soon as we're winding down and finishing these visual effects, Matt and I are going to start getting into it.' Matt Duffer added, 'It's going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix.' Intriguing indeed. During Netflix's 2025 preview, Matt Duffer teased potential spinoffs. 'There are more Stranger Things stories to tell and in the works,' he said. 'It's a bit early at this point to talk about them, but we're deeply involved in every one—it's very important to us that anything with the Stranger Things name on it is of the highest quality and not repetitive—that it has a reason to exist and always blazes its own path. And also, it needs to basically just be... awesome.' In the meantime, the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a prequel about Henry Creel before he became Vecna, is playing on the West End and soon headed to Broadway. Not yet, but so far, we have a slew of behind-the-scenes photos from production above. The writers gave their very first tease of the script. In November 2023, they shared a snippet from 'Season 5. Chapter 1. Scene 1.' This story will be updated. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE. Erica Gonzales is the Deputy Editor, Culture at where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
