Stranger Things season 5 celebrates exciting filming milestone (with mysterious blurry photo)

There's great news out of Hawkins, Indiana, or the Upside Down or wherever our ordinary heroes might be! Ross Duffer took to Instagram on July 3 ahead of the Fourth of July holiday to announce that Stranger Things season 5 has completed half of its filming process!

The co-creator shared a photo of the series' crew in one of the soundstages and said in the caption, "Week 24. Happy halfway to the best cast and crew ever." Since week 24 marks the dead center of filming, we can estimate that there are still 24 more weeks of filming, which would bring week 48 to a close in December 2024 ahead of the holidays. There's clearly a lot more to go!

Along with the photo, Duffer included a short video of Mike Wheeler star Finn Wolfhard putting a marble in a bowl to signify that another week of filming has been completed. When asked how it feels, Wolfhard jokes that it feels "exactly the same." Well, he's not wrong because it feels exactly the same for fans, too.

Stranger Things season 5 halfway finished filming!

Back back to that photo of the crew... While it's a wide shot of a very large group in a very large warehouse, those of us eagle eyed fans who zoomed in surely noticed the two people who have been mysteriously blurred in the center of the photo. Clearly, whoever these people are, their identities are being concealed for potentially spoilery reasons. We want to know who they are!

In the group photo, it's nearly impossible to make out who anyone is regardless of being blurred out or not. Being so, you can't really tell if any of the main cast members are featured in the picture. In that sense, the two blurred out figures definitely could be cast members dressed in character, and if we were to see the state of their costuming and makeup, there would be a spoiler for season 5.

We're still waiting until at least summer 2025

A day before Duffer shared this exciting update on the progress of the final season, series star Millie Bobby Brown shared a photo with her "forever wedding date" and husband Jake Bongiovi at a wedding. The 20-year-old star, who appeared in one of Netflix's biggest movies of the year, seemingly hasn't been filming recently, or she just hasn't been sharing the process.

The rest of the year will be spent filming Stranger Things for much of the cast, though with a cast as big as this one, they don't all have to film the same days unless there's a big group scene. Hopefully there will be more updates from the cast and crew as they work hard toward the finish line, though not too many behind-the-scenes peeks. Don't want to give anything away!

One thing's for sure: The wait for Stranger Things season 5 continues. With at least 24 weeks of filming left and many more weeks of post-production left after that, we will have to stay patient for the eventual release sometime in 2025. Don't get it twisted, just because filming could wrap by the end of the year, the episodes won't release much before summer 2025.

Stay tuned for more Stranger Things news and updates from Netflix Life!