Does the Stranger Things season 5 premiere title hint at Eddie’s return?

Netflix might not have been able to reveal too much about the upcoming fifth and final season of Stranger Things during Stranger Things Day 2022, but that didn’t stop Netflix from gifting fans with at least one juicy piece of information about the new season!

After a day full of merchandise drops and new behind-the-scenes photos, Netflix capped off its annual celebration of Stranger Things by revealing a key piece of information about the first episode of season 5.

While Netflix did not confirm the episode count or release date for the show’s final season, the streamer did use Stranger Things Day to drop the Stranger Things season 5 premiere title. In a tweet shared via the official Stranger Things account, Netflix confirmed season 5 episode 1 will be titled “The Crawl.”

What could the Stranger Things season 5 premiere title mean?

As confirmed by Netflix, the Stranger Things season 5 premiere title will be “The Crawl,” and the title is one that has left many fans questioning what exactly it could mean. One popular theory? The title hints at the return of Joseph Quinn’s Eddie Munson!

In the season 4 finale, Eddie famously played a cover of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” as part of the plan to bring down Vecna. As eagle-eyed fans have quickly deducted, the song happens to feature a pre-chorus line that references crawling which has many wondering if the episode title of the season 5 premiere is hinting that Eddie might not be dead after all.

https://twitter.com/bestofjosephq/status/1589402473256857601?s=46&t=Cxn77bHKz-ui-eN1pK8VTw

Needless to say, the connection between the “Master of Puppets” lyric and the season 5 premiere title has created a lot of speculation among fans as to whether Eddie will return. And there could very well be something to the theory as one has to believe the writers would easily be able to connect the lines as fans did in a matter of minutes.

However, there is another possible explanation as to what the premiere episode title could mean, one which shares a connection to Dungeons and Dragons.

As one fan quickly managed to deduce, a crawl is part of the Dungeon and Dragons play and is a scenario in which “heroes navigate a labyrinth environment, battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find.”

https://twitter.com/WISEKNlGHT/status/1589407911394316289

Could the title of the season 5 premiere be hinting that the season will begin with our heroes embarking on a quest of some sort? Given how season 4 ended, could the title be foreshadowing the journey ahead for our heroes in the final season? It definitely seems like a possibility!

Of course, we likely won’t know the exact meaning of the season 5 premiere title until additional information about the episode and season arrives. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate about the title’s meaning in the meantime.

Stranger Things seasons 1-4 are streaming now on Netflix.