In what year is Stranger Things set? The complete timeline, season by season
Universe · Chronology · 1983-1989
Stranger Things is set between November 6, 1983 and spring 1989, with a time jump between each season. Here is the exact chronology, season by season, with the dates the show puts on screen and those you can deduce.
The essentials
- Start: November 6, 1983, Will's disappearance
- End: 1989, Season 5 epilogue
- Total runtime: about five and a half years
- Longest jump: 18 months between Season 4 (March 1986) and Season 5 (fall 1987)
Contents
The timeline in one table
| Season | Period | Marker |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | November 1983 | Will disappears on November 6, one week of action |
| 2 | October–November 1984 | A year later, around Halloween; snow ball in December |
| 3 | June–July 1985 | Summer, until July 4, the fair and Starcourt |
| 4 | March 1986 | Spring break, eight months after Starcourt |
| 5 | Fall 1987 | Hawkins under military quarantine, eighteen months later |
| Epilogue | 1989 | You find the characters some time after the ending |
Each season covers a short period, from a few days to two weeks, separated from the next by a long interval. The show calibrated itself to its actors' ages: the children of 1983 are twelve, those of 1987 are sixteen or seventeen.
To display the right decade: the shop's retro T-shirt.
In the shopMen's Hawkins High School 1983 T-shirt39,90 €See the product
Season by season: what dates the action
1983Season 1
The first episode opens on November 6, 1983, a date shown on screen. The references confirm the period: Dungeons & Dragons in the basement, the walkie-talkies, the bikes, and a pop culture that stops cold in the summer of 1983.
1984Season 2
The action starts in late October 1984, almost a year to the day after Will's disappearance, and ends at the December Snow Ball. The kids dress as Ghostbusters for Halloween: the film came out in June 1984.
1985Season 3
Summer 1985, with July 4 as the high point. The Starcourt mall has just opened, Back to the Future is on the theater marquee, and the "new" formula of a famous soda, launched in April 1985, serves as a running gag.
1986Season 4
Late March 1986, during spring break, eight months after the battle of Starcourt. Hopper has been a prisoner in Russia since the previous summer, Eleven has been living in California since the fall.
1987Season 5
Fall 1987, eighteen months after the gates opened. Hawkins is locked down by the army. The action tightens on November, around the anniversary of Will's disappearance.
1989Epilogue
The show closes on an epilogue set in 1989, which finds the characters some time after the events of the last season, in a town that has taken up its course again.
The key dates to remember
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| November 6, 1983 | Will disappears on his way home from Mike's; Eleven comes out of the lab |
| November 1983 | Eleven shuts the Demogorgon in the classroom and vanishes |
| October 1984 | Will is possessed by the Mind Flayer |
| December 1984 | Eleven closes the gate; Snow Ball |
| July 4, 1985 | Battle of Starcourt, Billy dies, Hopper disappears |
| March 21, 1986 | Chrissy dies in Eddie's trailer: Vecna begins |
| March 27, 1986 | Four gates open on Hawkins |
| Fall 1987 | Hawkins under quarantine: season 5 begins |
Those dates are the ones the show displays or lets you deduce without ambiguity. The exact days of season 5, on the other hand, are little shown on screen: we know the action concentrates on November 1987, around the anniversary of Will's disappearance.
Why the 80s, and why those years
The Duffer Brothers were born in 1984. The years they put on screen are those of their childhood movies: E.T. (1982), The Goonies (1985), Stand by Me (1986). Setting Season 1 in 1983 is also setting it in the middle of the Cold War, which makes a secret lab, military experiments, and, later, a Soviet base credible.
The choice of a jump between each season has a practical reason: the actors were growing faster than the shoot. It also has an effect on the story: each time they come back, Hawkins has changed, and the characters with it.
The date trapA detail fans notice: Season 4 is set in March 1986, but Eddie plays Master of Puppets, an album released March 3, 1986. It is right, give or take a few days. The show has always been careful to use only references earlier than the period shown.
The figure of your favorite season.
In the shopHawkins police 4x4 Lego41,90 €See the product
The last season's dates, day by day
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| November 12, 1983 | Prologue: Will, in the Upside Down, is carried by the creature to Henry, in the library |
| November 3, 1987 | Hawkins under quarantine for nineteen months; Hopper's crawl; a Demogorgon comes through Holly's ceiling |
| November 4 and 5, 1987 | The Turnbow trap, the roundup of the children, Will facing the Demogorgons |
| November 6, 1987 | Anniversary of Will's vanishing: the fusion of the worlds, the climb of the antenna, the end of the Upside Down |
| Spring 1989 | The epilogue: graduation, the marriage proposal, the last D&D game |
The whole season sits in four days, from November 3 to 6, 1987, plus a prologue and an epilogue. It is the tightest structure in the show, which had taken a week in 1983, a week in 1984, ten days in 1985, and a week in 1986.
Before 1983: Henry's timeline
The show goes back twice before its first season. In 1959, the Creel family moves to Hawkins; Henry, fourteen, kills his mother and his sister, and his father is committed: that is what Victor tells at Pennhurst in 1986, and what the play The First Shadow stages. The last chapter adds an older memory still: a mine, a wounded man, a briefcase opened by a child, the origin of everything.
In 1979, Henry, now subject One of the lab, massacres the other numbered children; Eleven, eight years old, throws him into the Upside Down. That is the scene the Nina Project makes her relive in 1986, and it is, according to Dustin's theory in 1987, the day the Upside Down became a bridge between Hawkins and the Abyss. Eleven's birth date, 1971, and Henry's, 1947, frame that prehistory.
Why the dates matter so much
Few shows date their episodes to the day, and the show made a game of it with its fans: November 6, the day of Will's disappearance, became "Stranger Things Day," celebrated every year since 2018, and it is that day the season 5 premiere was held in 2025, and that day Henry chooses to act in the story.
The dates also serve consistency: the songs never go past the year of the action, the objects are of the period, and the characters' ages, twelve in 1983, sixteen in 1987, follow the calendar even when the actors no longer do. That precision is what let the last season make its finale coincide with the anniversary of its first episode.
The poster that puts Hawkins back on the wall, year by year.
In the shopWhite Hawkins Middle School 1983 sweater75,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
In what year does Stranger Things begin?
November 6, 1983, the day of Will Byers's disappearance, a date shown from the first episode.
In what year is season 5 set?
In the fall of 1987, about eighteen months after season 4, with an epilogue set in 1989.
How much time elapses in the whole show?
About five and a half years between Will's disappearance (November 1983) and the epilogue (1989).
Why do the actors look older than their characters?
Because three real years sometimes separated two seasons, while the story only moved forward by a year. The eighteen-month jump before season 5 was chosen to reduce that gap.
How many days does the action of season 5 last?
Four days, from November 3 to 6, 1987, plus a prologue in November 1983 and an epilogue in the spring of 1989.
What is Stranger Things Day?
November 6, the day of Will's disappearance in 1983, celebrated every year since 2018. Season 5 was premiered that day in 2025, and it is the date Henry chooses to act.