Stranger Things fans have been sent into meltdown after Netflix dropped a trailer for the hotly-anticipated fifth season of the fantasy drama from the minds of the Duffer Brothers.

Season five will draw the epic sci-fi fantasy drama series to a close as the battle lines are drawn in Hawkins, Indiana and the gang hopes to take down Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) once and for all.

As always, the show is expected to feature many pop culture references, and this time round will have 80s icon and The Terminator star Linda Hamilton in the role of Dr Kay.

This piece of stunt casting follows on from Sean Astin, Matthew Modine, Robert Englund, Carey Elwes, and, of course, Winona Ryder, who have appeared in the show.

Most importantly, Stranger Things leans heavily into the lore of tabletop role playing game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), which has been key to the drama series. 

Here’s a look at how the worlds of Stranger Things and D&D are linked. 

The Upside Down

Season one started off with Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) all playing the fantasy board game in a basement.

After Will went missing, the gang used D&D to try and make sense of the strange happenings in Hawkins. 

The Upside Down is likened to the Vale of Shadows and the Shadow realm in the first series, with some also drawing similarities to Shadowfell. 

According to the Forgotten Realms Fandom page, the Vale has “area of high bluffs and deep chasms with small pathways, with tombs lying through it”.

Even throughout the day, it remains in shadows and some of these are “undead shadows”.

Meanwhile, Shadowfell is an “echo” of the Prime Material Plane and is a “toxic plane of darkness and power” that is “hidden and “hates the light”.

Demogorgon

Season one also saw the introduction of the first villain, the Demogorgon, who was terrorising people in Hawkins before it was eventually defeated.

The gang called the creature a Demogorgon for lack of a better term. In D&D, the Demogorgon is known as the Imprisoned One and the Prince of Demons.

However, appearance-wise the Demogorgon in Stranger Things differs from D&D and in the game is described as towering 5.5metres with a “sinuous” body like a snake and has the power of an ape, has two baboon heads, and a long forked tail.

Mind Flayer 

Season two brought in the Mind Flayer, who was using its psychic abilities to control others, including Will.

The Mind Flayer was a hive-mind and a gigantic entity that looked spider-like in appearance. This creature was eventually taken down during the battle of Starcourt Mall in season three.

Similarly, in D&D, the Mind Flayer or Mind Ruler controlled other beings from within their own realm, consuming their personality while they were still alive and taking over them. 

But their appearance in the game is very different to Stranger Things. The Mind Flayer is a “gruesome mockery of the humanoid form” and its head is “bulging, ridges and elongated” with a cluster of tentacles around its mouths. 

Vecna

In the show, Vecna has a very different origin story, which is revealed in flashbacks to Henry Creel (Raphael Luce).

After being sent into the Upside Down by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) during the Hawkins Lab massacre, Vecna explored this other dimension and used it to build up his powers and create the Mind Flayer to make his way back to Hawkins. 

Vecna in D&D is considered one of the greatest villains in the game and according to lore he was a once-human king, who was so powerful that he ascended to a deity-like status.

But became too powerful and lived an “undeath”. He is described as “decrepit” and missing his left hand and eye.

In D&D Vecna was said by some to be obsessed with secrets and believed they held power with every being in existence. He believed beings could be manipulated to ensure destruction with a single secret. 

He wandered through the multiverse and had a hidden black tower within the Pandemonium plane.

Some other D&D references at the end of Stranger Things season one, sees the gang’s campaign ending too soon and them mentioning the “proud princess”, the “lost knight” and “weird flowers in the cave”.

These themselves can be paralleled to the show and potentially reference Eleven and the vines in the Upside Down. 

Stranger Things season 5 part 1 premieres in the UK on November 27 at 1am; part 2 on December 26 at 1am; the finale on January 1, 2026 at 1am