The debate between Stranger Things vs It: Welcome to Derry isn’t hypothetical anymore. Both shows aired across autumn and winter 2025 — and both ended with their audiences deeply divided. Stranger Things Season 5, the final season of Netflix’s decade-long flagship series, finished on New Year’s Eve. It: Welcome to Derry, the HBO prequel set in 1962 Derry, wrapped its first season in mid-December.
The results were instructive. Critics liked both shows. Audiences were more complicated — Stranger Things in particular finished with the sharpest critic-audience score divide in the show’s history, a 29-point gap that generated as much conversation as the actual content. Welcome to Derry came out of its season with steadier reviews, a second season in active development, and a fanbase that appreciated its slow-burn approach even when impatient viewers didn’t.
Here’s the complete picture: what both shows are, what they scored, what went wrong, what went right, and which one you should actually watch.
At a Glance — Both Shows Side by Side
| Detail | 🔵 Stranger Things Season 5 | 🔴 It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Network / Platform | Netflix | HBO / Max |
| Premiered | November 26, 2025 (Vol. 1) | October 26, 2025 |
| Finale | December 31, 2025 (theatrical + Netflix) | December 14, 2025 |
| Episodes | 8 episodes (released in 3 volumes) | 8 episodes (weekly release) |
| Setting | Hawkins, Indiana — Fall 1987 | Derry, Maine — 1962 |
| Creator(s) | Matt & Ross Duffer (The Duffer Brothers) | Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs |
| Genre | Sci-fi horror, coming-of-age | Horror, prequel drama, social commentary |
| RT Critics Score | 85% — Certified Fresh | 81% — Fresh |
| RT Audience Score | 56% (series’ lowest ever) | 73% |
| Metacritic | TBC (series average: ~74) | 61/100 — “Generally Favorable” |
| Viewership | Netflix crashed on premiere day. Became first series to have 4 seasons in Top 10 simultaneously. | 5.7M viewers in first 3 days; 6.5M for finale |
| Status | Series finale — ended. Spinoff in development. | Season 2 in active development (not yet greenlit) |
| Source material | Original (Duffer Brothers) | Based on interludes from Stephen King’s It novel |
Show 1 · Stranger Things Season 5
Stranger Things Season 5 — What Happened, What Worked, and Why the Finale Divided Everyone
Series Finale
Netflix · November 26 – December 31, 2025 · 8 Episodes · Series Finale
Core cast: Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), David Harbour (Hopper), Winona Ryder (Joyce), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Noah Schnapp (Will), Sadie Sink (Max), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Joe Keery (Steve), Maya Hawke (Robin), Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna), Linda Hamilton (Dr. Kay — new), Nell Fisher (Holly Wheeler — new)
Episode titles: The Crawl / The Vanishing Of ____ / The Turnbow Trap / Sorcerer / Shock Jock / Escape from Camazotz / The Bridge / The Rightside Up
Release structure: Vol. 1 (Eps 1–4): Nov 26 · Vol. 2 (Eps 5–7): Dec 25 · Finale (Ep 8): Dec 31 — simultaneously on Netflix and 620 US/Canada theaters
Theatrical performance: $25M+ in concession income from 620 theaters; 1.1M tickets sold as concession vouchers (due to residuals issues with cast contracts)
Spinoff: Confirmed to be in development by the Duffer Brothers — different characters, different town, connected to the Hawkins mythology
The final season picks up in the ruins of Season 4’s cliffhanger — Hawkins scarred by the opening of the Rifts, under military quarantine, with Vecna vanished and Eleven once again in hiding from an intensified government hunt. The entire party is back in one place for the first time since Season 3, with a single stated objective: find and kill Vecna before he finishes merging the Upside Down with the real world.
The first four episodes — released on Thanksgiving week — were well-received. Critics described the opening volume as “packed with gory action, movie-grade visual effects and effortless, amusing interactions from its now-veteran ensemble.” Volume 1 set a strong table and delivered the kind of kinetic, emotionally charged horror-adventure that built the show’s audience over a decade.
Then Volume 2 arrived on Christmas Day — and the audience turned.
Episode 7 featured Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) coming out as gay in a long-anticipated scene — a character arc that the Duffer Brothers had been building since Season 1. The episode became the lowest-scored episode in the show’s history on IMDb (5.5/10 from 145,000+ ratings), primarily due to a coordinated homophobic review-bombing campaign. Multiple review sites reported the brigading. The scene itself was widely praised by LGBTQ+ audiences and critics; the low score reflects organised negative voting rather than genuine audience consensus.
2. The series finale — “The Right side Up” (Episode 8)
The finale received a 30% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — the first negative audience reaction in the show’s history. Specific complaints: Eleven’s ending was seen by many fans as unsatisfying and misogyinistic; the final battle felt too easy for a decade of build-up; too much exposition and not enough character interaction between the original party; and characters who had carried the show for years (including Eleven and Will) felt sidelined in favour of newer additions like Holly Wheeler.
3. The “Game of Thrones curse”
Multiple outlets drew explicit comparisons to the Game of Thrones Season 8 finale — a series that delivered its worst Rotten Tomatoes scores precisely when audience expectations peaked. The pattern — critical praise, audience disappointment, accusations that the writers didn’t have a clear ending planned — tracked closely between the two shows.
Each generation needs — even deserves — its own band of heroic nerds to root for. Stranger Things has been that for a decade. The finale isn’t the perfect ending, but it’s an honest one.— Paraphrased from critical consensus, Rotten Tomatoes
Show 2 · It Welcome to Derry
It: Welcome to Derry — What the Prequel Actually Is, What It Gets Right, and Where Season 2 Is Heading
Season 1 Complete
HBO / Max · October 26 – December 14, 2025 · 8 Episodes · Weekly Release
Creator / Director: Andy Muschietti (directed It 2017, It Chapter Two 2019) · Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs (co-showrunners)
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch (composer of both It films)
Key cast: Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise / Bob Gray), Taylour Paige (Charlotte Hanlon), Jovan Adepo (Leroy Hanlon — an Air Force pilot who can’t feel fear after a brain injury), Chris Chalk (Dick Hallorann — years before The Shining), James Remar (General Shaw), Madeleine Stowe (Ingrid Kersh), Clara Stack, Amanda Christine
Premise: An African American couple — the Hanlons — arrive in Derry just as a child disappears. Pennywise awakens. The town’s long history of racial violence, institutional corruption, and supernatural dread begins to emerge.
Key Stephen King connection: Based on the historical interludes from King’s It novel — Mike Hanlon’s archival research into Derry’s catastrophic past. Also serves as a prequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining through the Dick Hallorann thread.
Season 2 status: Actively in development. Not yet officially greenlit. HBO’s Casey Bloys has confirmed it’s not in limbo. Season 2 expected to cover the 1935 Bradley Gang Massacre storyline. Full plan: three seasons across three eras (1962 · 1935 · 1908).
Viewership: 5.7M in first 3 days; 6.5M finale — among HBO’s strongest horror debuts
Where Stranger Things is a show about kids fighting monsters, Welcome to Derry is a show about a town that is a monster. Set in 1962 — the year of Pennywise’s most recent awakening — the series follows the Hanlon family as they arrive in Derry and discover that the town’s evil runs far deeper than a killer clown in the sewer. The racial tension of the early 1960s, the corruption of Derry’s police force, the community’s collective complicity in its own victimhood — all of these are as central to the horror as Pennywise himself.
The show’s most celebrated creative decision was casting Chris Chalk as a young Dick Hallorann — the psychic chef from Stephen King’s The Shining (played by Scatman Crothers in the 1980 Kubrick film). The casting confirms a shared Stephen King universe that fans had long theorised, and Chalk’s performance was cited by virtually every positive review as a series highlight.
Rotten Tomatoes’ critical consensus describes the show as one that “compellingly deepens the myth of Pennywise through sharp social commentary, a dreadful atmosphere, and committed performances” — while noting that “scattered plotting occasionally drains the fear from its chilling premise.” That tension — between ambitious worldbuilding and uneven pacing — is the most consistent note across both positive and mixed reviews.
What the show does uniquely well is make Derry itself terrifying. By 1962, the town has already survived multiple Pennywise cycles — the Black Spot nightclub fire, the Kitchener Ironworks explosion, the Bradley Gang massacre. The weight of that history is everywhere: in the residents’ numbness, in the police chief’s corruption, in the way adults refuse to acknowledge what children can clearly see. The horror isn’t just Pennywise. It’s a town that has learned to feed itself to him.
Head to Head · Category by Category
Stranger Things vs It: Welcome to Derry — Compared Directly Across Every Category
Horror Effectiveness
Characters
Audience Reception
Legacy and What Comes Next
Which show did you prefer — and did the Stranger Things finale satisfy you after a decade? Tell us in the comments. And follow us on Instagram for Welcome to Derry Season 2 updates and every major streaming horror story as it breaks. You can also save our horror and OTT board on Pinterest to track both franchises going forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about both shows — answered.
Which is better — Stranger Things Season 5 or It: Welcome to Derry?
It depends on what you’re looking for. Stranger Things Season 5 delivers the bigger spectacle — massive production value, beloved characters, and genuine emotional stakes — but divided its audience sharply, finishing with a 56% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the show’s lowest ever. It: Welcome to Derry scored 81% from critics and 73% from audiences, landing with more consistent reactions thanks to its focused atmospheric horror and deliberate pacing. If you want action, nostalgia, and a decade-long character payoff (however imperfect), Stranger Things wins. If you want slow-burn psychological horror with rich Stephen King lore expansion, Welcome to Derry is the better choice. Several critics and audience reviewers who watched both sides noted Welcome to Derry as the more consistently satisfying experience despite arriving with far lower pre-release hype.
Why did the Stranger Things Season 5 finale get such a low audience score?
Two separate factors contributed to the 56% audience score and the even lower 30% for the finale episode specifically. First, genuine narrative disappointment — many fans felt the finale played it too safe after a decade of build-up, with particular frustration at Eleven’s ending (widely called unsatisfying), a final battle that felt anticlimactic, and the sidelining of original cast members in favour of newer additions. Second, organised review bombing — Episode 7 “The Bridge,” which featured Will Byers coming out as gay, was subjected to a coordinated homophobic rating campaign across multiple platforms, becoming the lowest-scored episode in the show’s IMDb history. The combination of genuine fan disappointment and organised brigading produced the sharp critic-audience divide. Critics, evaluating the overall season and its production quality, maintained an 85% score throughout.
Where can I watch It: Welcome to Derry?
It: Welcome to Derry is available to stream on Max (formerly HBO Max) in the US and internationally on compatible platforms. The first season consists of 8 episodes, all of which have now aired. The first episode premiered on October 26, 2025, and the finale aired on December 14, 2025. All eight episodes are currently streaming in full on Max. A second season is in development.
Is It: Welcome to Derry connected to The Shining?
Yes — and it’s one of the show’s most significant creative decisions. Chris Chalk plays a young Dick Hallorann in the series, years before the events of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) and Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep (2019). Hallorann — the psychic chef who famously has “the shining” and tries to save young Danny Torrance — appears in It: Welcome to Derry as an Air Force pilot with telepathic and clairvoyant abilities stationed near Derry. His arc confirms a long-standing fan theory about Stephen King’s interconnected Maine universe. The show also includes references to Juniper Hill Asylum and Shawshank, further cementing its place in King’s shared literary geography.
Will there be a Stranger Things Season 6 or spinoff?
Stranger Things Season 5 is the definitive series finale — the story of Hawkins, the Upside Down, Eleven, and the party is over. However, the Duffer Brothers have confirmed a spinoff is in development. In an interview, Ross Duffer described it as involving “different characters, different town” but connected to the Hawkins mythology. He was explicit that it would not be a sequel or continuation of the main characters’ storylines. A stage play — Stranger Things: The First Shadow, set in 1959 and focused on the Creel family — has already been running in London’s West End and is heading to Broadway. As of early 2026, no premiere date has been set for the TV spinoff.
When is It: Welcome to Derry Season 2 coming out?
No official release date for Season 2 has been announced as of early 2026. The season has not yet been formally greenlit by HBO, though HBO programming chief Casey Bloys confirmed in January 2026 that it is actively in development and not in limbo. The delay in greenlight, he explained, is due to the time required to find the right story — unlike Season 1, which adapted existing interludes from Stephen King’s novel, Season 2 will need to construct its story with less direct source material. Season 2 is expected to cover the 1935 Bradley Gang Massacre — a violent event referenced in King’s book where Pennywise’s influence shaped a mass killing in Derry. The full plan maps out three seasons across 1962, 1935, and 1908.
What happened to Will Byers in Stranger Things Season 5?
Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) comes out as gay in Episode 7, “The Bridge” — the scene is presented as a vulnerable, emotionally significant moment where Will tells the truth about his feelings to Mike. The coming-out storyline had been foreshadowed since Season 1 and had been widely discussed by fans and the show’s creators for years. The scene was praised by LGBTQ+ audiences and critics for its emotional honesty. Episode 7 subsequently became the lowest-rated episode in the show’s IMDb history due to organised homophobic review bombing — a coordinated campaign that several entertainment news outlets reported and documented. The episode’s actual quality and the significance of the storytelling moment were widely separated from the low score in critical discussion.
Is It: Welcome to Derry suitable for new viewers who haven’t seen the It films?
Partially yes, partially no. The show is designed to function as a prequel — it takes place 27 years before the 2017 It film, so it isn’t necessary to have seen the films to follow the plot. The Hanlon family characters are entirely new, and the Derry setting is established from scratch. However, significant elements of the show — particularly the emotional weight of Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise, the mythology of the 27-year cycle, and especially the Dick Hallorann storyline’s connection to The Shining — are considerably more resonant for viewers with existing familiarity with both King’s novel and the 2017 films. New viewers can watch and enjoy it as a standalone horror drama; existing fans will get considerably more out of it.
Popcorn in hand and a opinion ready — Emily covers movie reviews, box office buzz, and all things cinema at Popcorn Review.
