Stranger Things Season 5 Officially Goes '90s With A Big Jurassic Park Riff

It's been approximately 84 years, but "Stranger Things" is finally approaching its final season — which of course will be split in three parts. It makes sense that Netflix would want to maximize the potential viewership of what has truly been their most successful, talked-about, and influential TV show ever by spreading its episode releases across a few months. But the extremely long post-production process has resulted in a TV series that's taken about as much time to get made as the entire "Harry Potter" movie series, and nearly as long as it took the Marvel Cinematic Universe to release the entire Infinity Saga. Indeed, the show has gone on for so long that the main cast now looks like when Tobey Maguire played high school senior Peter Parker as a 27-year-old man.

But the clearest sign that "Stranger Things" has gone on for far too long is that the latest trailer for season 5 is now including another reference to '90s pop culture instead of the '80s iconography it specializes in remixing and resurfacing. Specifically, the trailer includes a nod to Steven Spielberg's masterpiece, "Jurassic Park."

The new trailer teases the big final fight for the soul of Hawkins, Indiana, with the main crew being chased by dozens of creatures and even Vecna himself — who appears to have a particular vendetta, and seemingly not against Eleven. But we also see a peculiar shot of two demodogs entering what looks like a big kitchen, and then chasing Lucas, who takes refuge behind a big metal counter. That's right, "Stranger Things" is doing its own raptor kitchen scene.

Granted, this is not the first time "Stranger Things" has referenced the 1993 film "Jurassic Park." Throughout the first three seasons, but particularly in seasons 2 and 3, "Stranger Things" has included nods to the Ellie Sattler chase scene, the T-rex rearview mirror shot, and much more. "Stranger Things" loves to reference pop culture and there's no doubt "Jurassic Park" is as big a pop cultural cornerstone as any of the '80s movies the show has paid homage to over the years. In addition to "JP," the series has also referenced "Jaws" which, despite not being '80s movies, are creature features just like "Stranger Things," so why not crib from the master?

Practically speaking, the demodogs have been shown to hunt in packs from the start, so it makes perfect sense that we'd at some point get a raptor kitchen scene riff with them. 

This wouldn't be as big an issue had "Stranger Things" taken less time to end. But with the show approaching its tenth anniversary, and the final season now including nods to '90s pop culture, we can and will absolutely go wild with speculations about this having a bigger meaning. Could the final episodes touch on more '90s stuff? Could it even be set in the '90s? Stars Gaten Matarazzo and Finn Wolfhard already told us they want to see the Hawkins gang get obsessed with "Pokémon," so anything is possible.

We'll have to wait and see how it all develops when the first batch of episodes of "Stranger Things" season 5 drops November 26, 2025, followed by the second batch on Christmas Day and the series finale arriving December 31, 2025.