I am not in control of what ends up here

Fan 1: "Who is Darryl Green?" Fan 2: "Why do the Stranger Things books show something very odd, that doesn't fit the timeline?" Matt: "What are you talking about? I don't know. Which Stranger Things book?" Fan 2: "All of them" Fan 1: "Who is Darryl?" Matt: "I don't know, I don't really look at those books." Fan 3: "Have you ever played Mage the Ascension?" [Security guy says something about not getting to close, someone says something about staying in the line] Fan 1: "Is conformitygate real?" [Girl in the pink sweater looks back at the one filming, silently asking them why they are being so annoying] Fan 3: "Communitygate! Not conformi-" giggles Fan 1: "We thank you!" Matt (quietly, might be talking to the fans in front?): "Thank you? Yeah, thank you guys" Fan 2: "You guys are geniuses!" Fan 1: "We think everything is connected!" Fan 2: "The books are the paddles guys! The Stranger Things books are the paddles." Matt: "The what? What is your obsession with these- Which Stranger Things book are you talking about?" Several fans in unison: "All of them!" Matt: "Which ones though? Like-" Several fans in unison: "All of them!" Matt: "Oh you mean the fictional ones, like the ones on like [???] and stuff?" Fan 2: "All of the books! We've read them all!" Matt: "Which ones? What are they called?" Fan 2(?): "Oh, One Way or Another, The Hawkins Horde" Matt: "Oh, dude-" Fan 1: "There are wizards(?) in those books!" [Security guy asks people to give them space again, Matt talks to the people he's signing stuff for. It's blissfully quiet for a little while] Fan 1: "Is Robin a time traveler?" Matt: "What?" Fan 1: "Is Robin a time traveler?" Fan 2: "The books are saying that Robin is a time traveler" Matt: "Robin is a-" Fan 2: "And that you guys are- Everything is a dream!" Matt: "Dude I- I don't know what to say to that" Fan 1: "Are we dreaming?" Matt: "Ignore the books. It's just like-" Fan 2: "IgNoRe ThE BoOkS" Matt: "Or enjoy them as like, a separate thing." [Talking to the fans in front again]

Video cuts out and starts somewhere else

..this concept for the scoops ahoy hat is kinda shaped like a graduation cap?

generally agreed upon CG opinion: they're all in camazotz right now, with their conformity orange prisoner robes. so, why am I talking about cookies?

ever watch Black Mirror?

the post above shows examples of the black mirror references in the promo for stranger things 5!

considering #bandersnatchgate, the theory that stranger things will become interactive like the iconic black mirror episode bandersnatch, as well as all the references to BM...

I would like to bring one of the most psychologically terrifying aspects of the series into conversation:

a cookie is an artificial prison, a camazotz, if you will... but not for a persons physical body.

I propose you this: vecna is able to create copies of people, cookies: and store them in his mind.

to create a copy of someone you need small device that attatches to the side of someones head. this device is called a nubbin.

kinda looks like a vecna trance, yeah?

bad news: our max is likely dead. the max that we see in vecna's mind is a copy of her. her body is braindead following season 4.

by restarting max's heart, el probably granted max a semblance of free will despite being in henry's mind. her physical body still lives.

what we see is her clone return to max mayfields empty mind in season 5.

being apart of the hivemind, apart of vecnas mind for so long? who knows how that could have affected her? it would be enough to drive someone mad.

she, like will, is still apart of the hivemind regardless.

this likely means that the deaths in season 4, both the kids in hawkins lab, as well as chrissy, fred, and patrick? vecna has copies of them, still alive, just imprisoned.

this could even go as far as every death in the upside down, and that consumption by demogorgon is a similar, however more brutal process for vecna to steal someones conciousness.

cookies (the black mirror ones) are shaped like eggs. which, in the context of stranger things, sorta implies they hatch.

basically, vecna gives them a new physical body:

a demogorgon.

demos work for him like an army. the bees to his hive. doing his bidding, helping to ensure the creation of the rightside up, vecnas mindscape.

this is the only scene where both vecna and a demogorgon are on screen. look at the way that it bows to vecna. its too human. and a little extra if you ask me.

holly says to max; "You could be in disguise." which is true in the sense that, her appearance is not her own. henry allows this max to appear as herself, but her physical body does not belong to her anymore.

one last thing to consider:

the placement of mikes season 5 head injury is exactly where a nubbin would have gone.

in future episodes, the nubbin is also repurposed and used as an experiencer disk;

"...a virtual reality device, which allows its user to become fully neurally immersed in virtual reality upon attaching it to their temple."

aka, we can't trust anything that happens in season five, or at least since his head injury in sorcerer.

though i suspect that it happened sooner, and the injury is just a memory of when that happened. do any of us really know the true continuity of season 5?

the timeskips really feel like this:

COOKIES!!!! @gritstartar

thank you @thebestofmyrmidons for convincing me to watch black mirror, thank you @whispering-goat & @fixthehyper for introducing me to the theory that the demos are the dead characters! the three users above along with @power-kinesis, @arubikhandy0707 & @vecnapilled pioneered #bandersnatchgate, and I would not have connected this without their amazing posts on it ^^

and one final thank you @o11yradio, @anotherjlynn, @sterlingarcher23 & @cara-ti-amo for being my inspirations <3

and finally, thank YOU for reading my theory ;)

(the top part of this post relates to the U.S.S. Eldridge and bottom half The Bell!)

SOME CONTEXT FIRST

—> The Philadelphia Experiment or ‘Project Rainbow’ is the theory that in the fall of 1943 an experiment was conducted to attempt to make a U.S Navy transporter, the U.S.S. Eldridge invisible to hide from the Germans during the war. Instead, the ship completed vanished from thin air and was teleported from Philadelphia in a ‘flash of green light’.

—> in Stranger Things canon, the U.S.S Eldridge was captained by Captain Brenner, Martin Brenners father. And instead of making the ship invisible, they were momentarily transported to The Abyss where most of the crew were attacked and killed by Demogorgans.

—> This relates alot to the movie The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). In this movie when the Philadelphia Experiment occurs two sailors are transported from 1943 to 1984. This is because in 1984 this experiment was being conducted again, which caused a wormhole between two points in time. But in 1984, their experiment caused them to lose an entire town in time.

(above, Hawkins vs the town lost in time in 1984 TPE)

STARCOURT MALL

—> This is only my very first point, maybe you think it is a stretch, maybe you don’t but, I do believe they intentionally chose this mall because of its shape resembling the hull of a ship. It’s even got a rainbow like pattern at the entrance.

—> Next is the fact it’s literally called Starcourt Mall, we’ve already established by now that all the Stranger Things space & Star imagery is to do with the Abyss, like for example this line below from Steve (in SEASON 3 mind you)

(Left) the two sailors in the Philadelphia Experiment falling through a wormhole. + their sailor uniform

(Right) what Steve and Robin see in S3E7 (after they are talking about BTTF), which is CLEARLY meant to look like a wormhole. + Steves sailor uniform.

—> this falling through a wormhole scene also reminds me ALOT of the scene where Scoops Troop is falling down an elevator (ill talk about this soon because i believe that the elevator is a metaphor for S5 and is foreshadowing how they'll win)

S5E8 END CREDITS & DND

—> And then in the S5E8 end credits, Starcourt Mall is referred to as the “Court of Stars” and it has a very interesting description.

—> For starters, in the highlighted red, it’s talking about rainbows (remember it’s also called project Rainbow!!!) and an ‘unreal glow’, the USS Eldridge was said to dissapear in a ‘green glow’

—> And then highlighted in the blue, “unmistakeable the U.S.S—“ and it cuts off with B, obviously meant to say U.S.S Butterscotch, icecream talked about in Season 3. Yet below it starts talking about decommissioned galleons (ships from Spain?) and sea voyages, it really just feels like we’re meant to be relating this to a real ship, the U.S.S Eldridge?

—> “refreshing frozen citrus” is referring to Orange Julius, a store at the mall. Julius, who created the Julian calendar that we use today, and El just exploded it…(this makes more sense in the part right below this, frozen)

—> The Court of Stars in DND, what they call Starcourt Mall in the credits, clearly inspired Starcourt Mall, what’s interesting is the fact that ‘time does not pass’ in the Court of Stars, (its a never ending storyyyyy, Hoppers letter talking about pressing pause, the end credits with Starcourt mall using the word ‘frozen’, El exploding the Orange Julius, the calender?)

DIE GLOCKE (THE BELL)

This all brings me to the Die Glocke or the ‘Nazi Bell’ which I think, well I’m almost positive has been used in conjunction with The U.S.S. Eldridge as inspiration for Star Court Mall.

The Bell has many names such as The Die Glocke, The Wonder Weapon, The Anti-gravity machine, Project Chronos and more. It was rumoured to a weapon or machine of some kinda from the 1940s, and was it was believed to of been some kind of time-machine, anti-gravity machine, or something that could rip a hole through the space-time continuum.

—> The Bell, would require enormous amounts of electricity to operate, would rotate at high speed in opposite directions, a glowing blue light, required a radioactive liquid as propulsion.

—> its so called ‘true’ aim ‘reach an energetic level capable of generating a torsion field with the aim of deforming space-time, of curving it to the point of creating a tunnel that would allow to travel through it to other places and other times’

SOUND FAMILIAR???

Additionally, remember this conversation below from the season before? "If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally." because in this one its the Russians who created it!

There’s even a lot of bell imagery in S3, for example, Erica ringing the bell at Scoops Ahoy, and then Mike ringing it at the beginning. Also the fact Robin calls Steve ‘dingus’!!!

(I find Mike ringing the bell (time travel device) scene super interesting because as Mike does, Robin calls out “hey dingus your children are here!” Given the fact Steve calls Dustin his dad twice and the whole BTTF plot being about going back in time to your parents, Steve crawling backwards and him mentioning 6 nuggets and it being brought up again in S5, seems like something will happen with that??? Steve also says “seriously, again???” And Mike sarcastically rings the bell once more, time loop theory?)

—> One thing I have also noticed though is SO FAR the only time we see/hear bells is with the Scoops Troop and with Hopper, Joyce, Murray and Alexei, the ones involved in the Russian plot line. El, Max, Nancy group etc (Griswold Family) all knock on doors! Unless they’re at Starcourt Mall (e.g. Mike S3E1).

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?

Remember this scene? Max and El are shopping at the mall, they explode a group of girls ‘Orange Julius’s”, which has been bugging me for SO LONG BECAUSE I KNEW IT MEANT SOMETHING.

—> An Orange Julius. Julius, as in Julius Caeser, the creator of the Julian Calender. EXCEPT for the Russian Orthodoxs, they use the Julian Calender still, which is why Christmas for them is on January 7th (jumpscare). The world used the Julian Calender for most of history, to due to the timeline of it being off!!! the innacuravcy was eleven minutes! EL EXPLODED IT AND THEN RUNS AWAY INFRONT OF THIS MASSIVE TACOBELL SIGN (the drinks in this scene are hella emphasised too!)

—> many countries now use the Gregorian Calender, the name of the Russian trying to kill Hopper and Joyce? It’s Grigori.

(1) To summarise, El exploded on Orange Julius then runs away with Max infront of a massive tacoBELL. sign. she explodes (disrupts) the Julian Calender

(2) then, later in the season, Grigori is killed as he’s pushed into the machine (The Bell), destroying the Gregorian Calender.

Then we're back with the Bell imagery in S5, specifically I wanna talk about this BELL Tower scene below. Theyre waiting for the burn, Mike counts down to 'boom' (yet another explosion at a bell tower!).

This scene above CLEARLY shows there are TWO people, its very emphasised. It also shows one lighter being lit before the next, AKA the Julian Calender Timeline disrupted first (Orange Julius & El) and then the next, the Gregorian Timeline (Gregori and the Bell/Russian machine)

(extra, above clearly shows a bell behind Steve and Dustin as Murray says ‘it’ll catch fire’)

CONCLUSION

—> something happened with the explosion of the Russians device (The Bell) in S3, it literally destroyed Grigori, the Gregorian Calender, I think a time loop of some sorts was created, that Hawkins was somehow lost in time.

—> Neverending story plays right before the explosion.

—> Starcourt Mall parraleled to the U.S.S. Eldridge that got lost in time.

—> Time does not move in the “Court of Stars” according to DND, Hopper talks about pressing pause in his letter.

—> the S5E8 end credits calling the Orange Julius’s ‘frozen’

—> One timeline was destroyed before the other.

(EXTRA 1 - Also bro, I just rewatched the S3E1 beginning when the Russians first use their machine, they SLOMO those people in the room getting electrocuted, it’s so so gruesome they show their melted bodies like hello I don’t remember that? There’s NO WAY hopper could of survived that genuinely, they showed us that to make us realise that)

I've been thinking about this post for a long time, and all the connections which I'm going to try to point out, because the maps are so frustrating, but so interesting.

(thank you also to Naomi, Goat, Ace and others in the discord for letting me yap about if any of this might actually make sense!)

Firstly, let's start with the wormhole that might not be actually a wormhole, but still "only" a Wall, circle (a wheel) in the Upside Down

“While the existence of wormholes is entirely theoretical, they have captured the fascination of scientists and science fiction writers alike. (...) If wormholes did exist, they would be extraordinarily unstable. Their enormous gravitational force would rip them apart at the very moment they formed.” - Mr. Clarke, 5x3

let's go with Dustin's first idea what the wall around UD is a circle, a wall all around:

(remember the algebra, it will be another point later on.)

"So the lab created the wall?" - "No idea. But i think we should find out."

map no. 1: Dustin figured out with 3 points what proportion the circle around Hawkins would be. What's interesting is (and this I've seen in this amazing post by @zephyrcryptid) that the Lovers Lake is within the circle on this particular map! (Either it's a incorrectly printed version with the Lake pasted onto the wrong square, or... and this is the part I want to maybe focus more in this post - the lake is moving locations.

(I know, I know, that's "impossible", "that's just prop error", "it doesn't mean anything". Well, humor me. Why not. It's impossible? Maybe, maybe more improbable, but nothing is impossible, especially in a scifi tv show where they talk about wormholes existing, right?)

It's only later when Dustin finds Brenner's notes on what the Wall could actually be, he thinks it's a wormhole, (same as in 5x3 we as audience think to connect Mr. Clarke's class and Erica saying what wormhole is, it lead us to think it's the case of the actual wormhole, because we see it on the board).

then it's even more enforced with what the characters later discuss in 5x7, and what the Duffers showed us in the 'documentary' - but none of that necessary have to be the truth - as this show likes to play with the perception of what is or isn't reality, also because of the reasoning that a wormhole would instantly collapsed after forming, and because of the exotic matter - which still remains a big unknown in how it relates to the UD.

but what's more important and what I want to focus on here - is how this scene above with Dustin, is followed by Max searching Henry's memories and throught those she hoped to find the exit:

She found the memory of Vecna first targetting her, beyond the Rainbow room - which is in the Lab, and, as we know, the Lab is the center of the Wall). so the memory is literally hidden behind a wall, a wall Max even had to tear through to get to it.

and what's more - it showed us Mike first, sitting beside Max during a math class,

Not a game. An interactive online dramatic television series.

Netflix had initially filed the TM application for "an online television series" - the office thought this was too broad and suggested they change this to "providing interactive online action, adventure, and comedic television series".

Netflix rejected these suggestions, and limited the claim to an interactive online dramatic television series. Not action! Not adventure! Not comedy! A dramatic series! (Note: they're gonna file for products they intend to cover commercially, so they already knew approximately what type of content was coming when this was filed). The TM was filed in 2019, which aligns with the DBs saying they had figured out the ending around 5 or 6 years ago.

YAY! We're getting the interactive TV series! (note: not a video game! a tv series!)

WHOOOP - the US is also pretty strict on TM filings (you can't file for all goods & services under the sun) - you need to prove that you are either using it or have evidence that you intend to use that trademark for those goods & services in the future. This TM was filed in 2019, and is still upheld currently!

FYI - looks like Tales from '85 will actually be an animated show/episode/whatever they release (again, TM filings don't lie), so don't get your hopes up too high for that date. You can't fool me Netflix!

What did we learn from Feb 20 (2026) about the Stranger Things viral marketing strategy?

Or: The Duffer Brothers made a prototype ARG back in 2016 called _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9

(I should have made two separate posts, but in my head these two subjects are connected and I have no time to fix it)

Hello everyone! Remember when I posted my ultimate promotional timeline for the Stranger Things ARG and then said, pretty confidently:

Something is going to happen on Feb 20!!!

And then... Nothing happened? Well, not quite nothing. I said we would get answers and, oh boy, answers we got. Let's talk about it! :)

A lot of my thoughts and reflections are inspired by my conversations with @fixthehyper, @nuffit, @thebestofmyrmidons, @luminescentlama, @randomstblog, @autoasta, @disastertourwaterdeepedition, @arubikhandy0707 and @picsbydarienjay

I still stand behind my promo analysis master post so far, read that one first:

I have amended it a bit, check out my edits if you haven't seen them yet!

So what exactly happened on Feb 20?

We had FIVE distinct posts:

1. An Architectural Digest article on Matt Duffer's and his family's home:

His apartment is a bit CG themed, the orange and green everywhere. The article also features two videos on S5 set design. Maybe something is in those? Nice grandfather clock you got there, Matt Duffer.

2. An announcement revealing the second cast of The First Shadow Broadway Production:

3. A report about a Private Stranger Things Tour for super fans:

4. More Nikki Baxter Bullshit from a "commentary account" on Twitter, @UDScoopMedia:

5. The insanely long over 48 hours YouTube live stream by q, who is also known as @HawkinsHappenin (HawkH) on Twitter.

Going forward, I assume that the reader fully understands that @HawkinsHappenin aka q is a plant. Still unsure? Let's quickly address this common criticism:

Regardless if you think this is the original "teenager" who leaked some Stranger Things BTS content or someone else, who took on this identity for lore and mystery, this account has a purpose. It retweets Twitter ragebait and misinfo, it plays into people's beliefs of CG and it behaves exactly like the other Twitter plant accounts. It creates hype by making posts of cryptic nature, sprinkling half-truths throughout. You don't get BTS content from official sources by begging on Twitter. @HawkinsHappenin is connected to the Stranger Things social media presence, if you like it or not. Check out my posts on plants on my blog for more of my thoughts.

Looking at the five points above, it's quite a substantial list of promo, but it's also not mind-blowing, content-wise. What fascinated me the most though, was not the livestream itself, but the existence and purpose of it.

About 50-120 people tuned in to q's live stream on Feb 20 (2026) and the days before and after, they kept watching, listening and waiting for something to happen during it. It was mostly the same clips on a loop over and over again, with distorted music, some morse code on Nikki Baxter, some timers/countdowns, some coordinates that lead to a location close to Hawkins Headquarters. It was building and building and building up to... a whole lotta nothing, in my opinion.

I argued in my ultimate promo timeline post, that the Stranger Things social media team has been cycling between positive and negative promo every 5/6 days and that on Feb 20 we would have to get out of the super weird, confusing, negative promo slump we have observed since Feb 8 (or Feb 10). In the past, I made the logical error of viewing the Stranger Things ARG as a puzzle for us, the players, to solve. That's why Feb 20 felt like a clue, but I was wrong.

Ask yourself this: Can this livestream even be considered... promo? It only targeted about a hundred people. How is that effective? Unless... promo was never the goal, but only the byproduct of all this.

Reframing everything we have noticed so far not as an attempt at promoting new content, but as a social experiment, everything starts to fall into place. The promo is a cover for what is really happening, a targeted provocation of the entirety of the Stranger Things fandom.

The fandom reaction has been central in the Stranger Things viral marketing campaign. The General Audience (GA), disgruntled bylers, and yes, also CG theorists have been collectively played. Maybe we all react differently, due to our various perspectives, but emotionally, we all have been strongly affected! Just reflect on these past two months, how everyone, no matter their thoughts on Stranger Things, has had some gripes with the ending. Nobody is truly satisfied. They're fucking with us to prove a point. I know people on Tumblr have a bit of a cynical view of the GA, but most of them got hyped for the possibility of a secret episode on Jan 7, even if during the finale they didn't notice anything or have completely moved on by now.

The point the Stranger Things ARG is making is that by playing it safe and selling out, artists create mediocre and conform art and fans should be angry about this!

What I have been calling ragebait, Nikki Baxter, has been tailored to be exactly that for ALL groups:

- GA: Ew, what's this pink-haired butch lesbian looking character infiltrating my 80s themed show for?! (sorry I have seen many comments like this ._.)

- Sad bylers (nudged in this direction by the mainstream media narrative): Why do we have a spin-off with more Mileven content and why is another girl in the way of our gay boys?! Introducing a new character creates continuity errors... The writers ARE STUPID and SELL-OUTS?!

- CG theorists: Why does none of the information add up about her, most sources are dubious or unverified? What's her purpose in the ARG?? Is she the manifestation of the Mind Flayer, is she messing with the timeline??? Is the cartoon even real?!?! Argh, we want to know!!!

I already connected the emotions of the fandom to the promotional timeline previously, because they are hard to ignore. Like clockwork (lol), around every major promo drop, the fandom, in particular CG theorists, would behave in a similar way: hope, hype, crash-out, repeat!

In this context, q's livestream actually makes perfect sense. It specifically targets the most hardcore of the fan base, of course it's not for GA or regular bylers, they don't even know it exists. It's there to create hype, but also it's to call CG theorists out. We are so desperate, we will cling to any clues and will follow the plants whims for a nothingburger. Give or take a hundred people stopped messaging in the live chat of the stream simultaneously, because a supposed plant said so. Some genuinely thought for a moment it would do something. Even the most critical and media literate of us, in extreme circumstances, will behave like a hivemind. Or, perhaps more like Joyce in Season 1. While she was right about Will being alive, she did put too much trust in that goddamn phone:

CG theorists losing sleep and hoping HawkH will give them actually some interesting new information (colorized). Pic from @thebestofmyrmidons #phonegate post.

We know that Netflix takes super fans into account in their profit model, very pragmatically. Super fans are the main source of free promotion for them, they have admitted it themselves ("FQ3 2025 Earnings Call Transcripts" Oct 21, 2025):

My full analysis of the Netflix business strategy is linked inside the promotional timeline master post at the beginning of this post.

Well, isn't this something? I feel we are not just players in the Stranger Things ARG, we are also predictable data points for a giant corporation. We're like puppets on a string doing their choreographed song and dance.

What Vecna is to the characters, Netflix is to us.

It gets worse, kind of.

In my humble opinion, the social experiment part of this marketing campaign is ethically dubious at best, kind of exploitative at worst, mainly because of Netflix's involvement and their corporate greed. Of course, I acknowledge this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to study fandom behavior and see how propaganda and misinformation influences the masses. It's definitely valuable data for all kinds of research. I am just not particularly fond of being a data point, that's all.

I think the Stranger Things ARG overall is a passion project orchestrated by the Duffer Brothers though, it is performance art at its core, and I appreciate that. What if I told you the online component has been in the works since 2016? I suspected that due to the gigantic scale of this project, it had to have taken years of planning. We have indications that most major social media platforms are involved: Reddit, Twitter, Insta+FB, TikTok, Tumblr, ao3, etc. Some of us have even found CG clues in more obscure places like Pinterest, DeviantArt and web forums such as fanon wikis.

Perhaps a prototype would be hidden somewhere? Lo and behold, @picsbydarienjay shared this bombshell with me. Thank you dude! :D

_9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9

My jaw dropped the first time I read about this. I genuinely was shocked. Between February 2016 and July 17 (2016), the end date being 2 days after Season 1 of Stranger Things was released, a creepypasta was posted in Reddit comments across multiple subreddits that formed one semi-cohesive narrative with themes of the show. A summary:

Note the "30-something American male". Who were 30-something, American and male in 2016? A Reddit user suggested 10 years ago this could be related to Stranger Things, but got heavily dismissed in the comments at the time:

This person was NOT wrong in hindsight, when having the context of the Stranger Things ARG in 2026. I can't believe how people overlooked this:

This creepypasta has many connections to Stranger Things, I encourage anyone to dig through the lore.

I will mention a "simple" parallel that @picsbydarienjay told me about:

The mysterious account linked to "Fairy Queen - Tami Stronach", the singer Tami (Tammy!!!) is the actress of Childlike Empress in The NeverEnding Story (1984).

HA HA HA HA HA

Okay, I am done. If this post does not prove that the Stranger Things ARG has been planned from the very beginning of the show and that this entire promotional campaign has been one big troll and social experiment I don't know what will.

But Goat, when will the content come out??? I am anxiously waiting 🥺👉👈

Soon, most likely before the end of April. The Black Mirror: Bandersnatch mini ARG and viral marketing campaign took about 2-2.5 months in total. The promo for Stranger Things has reduced to triggering the super fans mostly, the active plants are confused themselves on what to do, maybe there is a production delay for the interactive content, who knows?

The Duffer Brothers are leaving for Paramount after April (2026). Since Tales from '85 airs on April 23, allegedly lmfao, and most cons with cast appearances will commence at the end of March (2026), I have a feeling they literally can't make us wait that much longer. They really want to though, they do. The Stranger Things social media team also wants us to keep guessing specific dates for their little stunt by leaving misleading clues, but I won't entertain them anymore, and neither should you.

https://www.paramount.com/press/paramount-signs-multi-year-exclusive-deal-with-matt-and-ross-duffer-the-visionary-duo-behind-the-global-phenomenon-stranger-things

The Netflix and DONTNOD 2025 collaboration and the Life is Strange parallels hiding in plain sight

Disclaimer: This is a post in a series of collaborative posts that provides evidence that the next piece of Stranger Things content is going to be an interactive film using Episode 2 to 8 as the base. #bandersnatchgate

Contributors: @thebestofmyrmidons @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @power-kinesis @nuffit @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate. Check out the thorough and well-substantiated post by @thebestofmyrmidons. I present a sypnosis:

The type of delay of copyright registration by Netflix that has been witnessed for Episode 2 - Episode 8 of Stranger Things Season 5 has only happened for interactive shows and movies.

Posts on this topic from me:

1. How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale.

2. The Netflix and DONTNOD 2025 collaboration and the Life is Strange parallels hiding in plain sight.

3. The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis

In this post, we will see how Netflix has taken steps the past couple of years, but especially in 2025, to improve the interactive elements on their platform. "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" (BMB) and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy versus the Reverend" (KvR) worked as a prototypes for whatever we can expect in the future.

I ended Post 1 with the following link:

Here it was announced that BMB and KvR were leaving the platform on May 12, 2025. The question is: why then? While KvR suffered due to its release in the pandemic (2021), BMB was a smash hit for the platform back in 2018.

Does Netflix even want interactive content on their platform?

The short answer is YES. The general public misinterprets the removal of BMB and KvR and deeply misunderstands how large streaming services like Netflix operate, which results in the following misconceptions being believed:

Interactive content is not popular, so

- Netflix would not want to invest in it, it's not profitable.

- Netflix would want to create content that appeals to the majority of their users instead.

Regardless if the main statement is correct or not, the two conclusions are definitely FALSE. This becomes clear while reading the Q&A with Netflix's executives from "FQ3 2025 Earnings Call Transcripts" (Oct 21, 2025)

I'll share a couple of points and excerpts that illustrate this.

A: Even their biggest and most succesful titles only generate less than 1% of the total viewing on their platform. They're not in a pinch though, their business is actually healthy and growing. This means that maximizing viewership on their major titles is not how they retain an audience or generate profit.

They also made it easier and more accessible to play games on TV, both using a phone or TV remote, since Q3 2025 (Very convenient!!!)

B: They rely on hardcore fans to promote their titles and drive new viewers to their content eventually. They don't expect major viewership and instant success on the day of release of new content. (Sounds suspiciously familiar???)

C: They remark that the gaming industry is very profitable and that they want to expand their library not just with games, but with interactive content in a broader sense. They have been building the foundation to make this possible for a while. They want to create "immersive narrative games based on our own IP" (They list most of their famous IPs besides Stranger Things, of course, that would be a major spoiler!). They argue that implementing interactivity extends audience's engagement with a story and retains viewership, which ultimately supports the business. (Netflix can't wait to milk Stranger Things in this way!!!)

D: They even strive to make their advertisements interactive.

The three main conclusions I want the reader to take away from this:

1. Interactive content is a good investment for Netflix overall.

2. Netflix relies on passionate fans for promotion of their IPs.

3. Netflix's earning strategy is not dependent on maximizing viewership for a singular show, movie or game, hence the general popularity of interactive content probably does not matter as much in their decision making.

Check out these articles on where and how they have implemented interactivity thus far. Notice that the latest larger interactive titles are from 2022, but they have slowly started building interactivity back onto their platform since 2025.

It's very likely BMB and KvR were not taken off the platform, because Netflix has been phasing out interactive content. On the contrary, they probably have been overhauling their backend for a couple of years already to improve their ability to support interactive content from 2026 and onwards. This is a long-term investment for them. The Stranger Things ARG is interactive promotion that has been targeting the hardcore fan base. Once the new interactive content for Stranger Things is dropped, Netflix knows for a fact we will do free promotion for them and disgruntled bylers and the General Audience will join us in playing their game.

Are there signs that Stranger Things specifically will have an interactive continuation?

The short answer is YES. We have #copyrightgate that proves that already, but let me present some other pieces of evidence:

In this article published on Oct 29 (2025), CTO Elizabeth Stone discusses both potential future Stranger Things games and BMB:

Games offer Netflix a natural opportunity to build on its original intellectual property. For example, creating games around Stranger Things could give fans new, immersive ways to engage with the show’s world, Stone said.

This isn’t Netflix’s first experiment with interactive storytelling. In 2018, it released Bandersnatch, the Black Mirror episode that let viewers choose the story’s direction and determine its ending. The platform’s new interactive features go further by adding a real-time component. “It’s a live experience where you’re influencing an outcome or having an experience versus absorbing or consuming content without an ability to play a part in that story,” said Stone.

If this isn't yet convincing that Stranger Things could have future interactive content, we have this other article published on the same date, Oct 29 (2025):

Curiously, the article opens with this title and picture:

It also shares a couple of statements from DONTNOD:

A development agreement with Netflix, a new narrative game, major IP... Why the secrecy? :)

For anyone who has played a game from the Life is Strange franchise, something else will come to mind besides them being specialists in narrative games:

DONTNOD are masters in supernatural queer storytelling.

This was a lightbulb moment for me. What better collaborative partners to have than DONTNOD to tell the love story between Mike Wheeler and Will Byers? The first Life is Strange game came out in 2015, a year before Stranger Things Season 1 was released. It's probably a coincidence that the main character, Max Caulfield, bleeds from her nose when she uses her time traveling powers, in the same way El and Will do while using their telepathic abilities. BUT, from Stranger Things Season 2 (2017) onwards, it's not that surprising if the Duffer Brothers and their writing team took some inspiration from this wildly popular indie game, a trendsetter in the supernatural and LGBT+ genre.

If you're tired of the Stranger Things ARG and bored out of your mind while waiting for the new content to drop, I highly recommend to (re)play the first Life is Strange. Maybe you'll find some interesting parallels, like: queer love awakening powers, a small American conform town, overuse of powers causing a rift in the environment and space-time continuum, travelling through old memories, best friends turned queer lovers and

There is so much more, it's a gift that keeps on giving honestly and I would love to see a deep-dive on this from others on Tumblr.

The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis

Disclaimer: This is a post in a series of collaborative posts that provides evidence that the next piece of Stranger Things content is going to be an interactive film using Episode 2 to 8 as the base. #bandersnatchgate

Contributors: @thebestofmyrmidons @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @power-kinesis @nuffit @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate. Check out the thorough and well-substantiated post by @thebestofmyrmidons . I present a sypnosis:

The type of delay of copyright registration by Netflix that has been witnessed for Episode 2 - Episode 8 of Stranger Things Season 5 has only happened for interactive shows and movies.

Posts on this topic from me:

1. How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale.

2. The Netflix and DONTNOD 2025 collaboration and the Life is Strange parallels hiding in plain sight.

3. The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis

My final post on the promotional timeline and my last theory post on conformitygate (CG). It's here. Let's walk through the dates one last time. I leave out all the minor promotions, but realize we did have lots of social media buzz, Jimmy Fallon Show and other cast interviews and hints for CG almost daily since Jan 1 (2026), even though Stranger Things is supposedly "over". I recently realized that every 5/6 days we did not just get major promotional drops, but also there was a purposeful cycle of positive and negative press that played with the emotions of the fandom. That was completely calculated and predetermined by the Stranger Things social media team. Plants also changed behavior cyclically before, during and after promo drops, but that's neither here nor there.

Dec 25: Stranger Things 5 Vol 2 drops

(negative reaction after E7, review bombing IMDB, change.org petition)

Dec 26: birth of cutgate, a major clue for conformitygate (CG), beginning of the Stranger Things ARG

(positive anticipation of the finale)

Jan 1: The finale drops 💥 birth of #conformitygate

(extreme negative crashout)

People started theorizing about CG, it spread on social media, mainstream media reported on it. People were speculating about a Jan 7 date.

Jan 6: Jamie Campbell Bower posts a video on instagram, counting up from 1 to 12, saying "It's Time".

(positive anticipation of new release)

Jan 7: The Netflix crash

(extreme negative crashout)

Here, I entered the scene, most fans left the CG bus at this point.

(positive anticipation of "documentary fakeout")

Jan 12: The documentary drops 💣

(negative crashout)

The remaining fans realize the documentary is satire. I prove that CG is real with some logic and probability:

(positive anticipation for announcement at SNL)

Jan 17: Finn's SNL performance

(negative crashout from parasocial freaks)

(positive responses from CG theorists)

At this point, I created my promotional timeline, I predicted the following pattern based on the previous dates and my little research on the life span of news stories:

Jan 23: The YouTube Quiz ✅

(neutral response, loss of interest)

Now with bandersnatchgate, we know this was indeed a major drop, because the questions and answers are a tutorial or guide for the interactive puzzle that's to come.

Jan 28: Purposeful negative reporting on Nikki Baxter ✅

(negative reaction)

(positive anticipation of CG clues)

Feb 2: Tales from '85 trailer drops ✅

(negative reaction)

Many speculations about a Super Bowl announcement started popping up during this time. This was obviously to generate hype again. Reminiscent of Jan 1 - 6 period. Recycling strategy.

Feb 8: The Super Bowl hell ✅

(extreme negative crashout)

Feb 9: ...

Feb 10: The First Shadow ProShot announcement ❓

(positive hype)

This is where I noticed that two big promo events occurred in the span of two days. One very negative, one pretty positive. I was confused. Did my promo timeline fail me? I gave two routes, because I was expecting the 5/6 days cycle to resume.

Now, I think I noticed the beginning of a new phase of promotion in the Stranger Things ARG: rapid fire! The hints and clues have become more cryptic, information and ragebait from unverified sources has increased, it is brazenly spread by plants and the rest of the social+mainstream media apparatus. These promo drops mostly illicit a negative response or create a state of confusion.

Feb 11: Caleb McLaughlin commented on CG in a negative way

Feb 12: Empire Magazine published an item on Tales from '85 with CG clues.

(confusion)

Feb 13: Trailer for Something very bad is going to happen ✅

This one is technically not Stranger Things related, but as a Duffer Brothers production, it still serves its purpose of keeping the attention on the show.

Small promo point: Is this article below made to put SNL and the Duffer Brothers in a bad light? Why would Finn Wolfhard need to notify Daniel Radcliffe himself?

https://people.com/daniel-radcliffe-reveals-finn-wolfhard-gave-him-a-heads-up-about-the-snl-skit-11906583

(confusion)

Feb 14: AI video "fixes" Stranger Things ending

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2026/02/14/bad-game-of-thrones-stranger-things-endings-are-being-remade-convincingly-poorly-with-ai/

Disappointment about no byler on Valentine's Day.

(ridiculously negative)

Feb 15: "The Duffer Brothers Birthday Bash'

(confusion)

Feb 16: More Nikki Baxter Bullshit (see below), unverified reporting on The First Shadow changes (see above)

(confusion)

Feb 17: @HawkinsHappenin starts vagueposting about Feb 20 again and shared multiple live streams from YouTuber q. One is still running (Feb 18/19) and has (morse) code messages related to CG. Information+screenshots from @arubikhandy0707 , @avbyler and @livinglikelarries , they'll probably want to share full details of their findings, so I am not giving spoilers :)

(positive anticipation for...?)

Feb 18: (negative, misdirect, attempt to make people lose hope) Screenshot by @biigiiiii

There has been so much more weirdness happening in between Feb 10-18, even more unsubstantiated rumors on Nikki Baxter from unverified Twitter accounts I haven't reported on, plus slither.io and @HawkinsHappenin conversing in code...? Not touching that, but feel free to attempt some code cracking.

Feb 19: ...

Feb 20: ⏰⌚ ✅

Notice how Feb 20 was in both my promotional timeline routes btw. Feb 20 will be the end of this phase of the Stranger Things ARG. Why?

- CG is real. Interactive content is coming. #bandersnatchgate

- It's been two months and attention span is dwindling, even among the strongest CG bus drivers

- Any real promo for Stranger Things has been shared by now: the documentary, interviews with producers and cast, trailer for Tales from '85 and the announcement of The First Shadow proshot.

- CG clues have become more erratic, nonsensical and outrageously unverified, with a focus on Nikki Baxter. There is so much, in particular on Twitter, it's hard to keep up!

- @HawkinsHappenin is putting his yearslong reputation as a trusted plant on the line by claiming something is happening on Feb 20, multiple times! Check the date of the tweet below, he keeps bringing it up (also, playing into time shenanigans). You can check my posts on plants where I show he is one, but this Twitter account has a long history in the Stranger Things fandom and is undoubtedly connected to the Stranger Things social media team.

- Feb 20 does not only fall on the promotional timeline, it also should be positive promo, considering the pattern I have outlined above. We are coming out of a negative slump, and before all this we had a consistent postive-negative cycle.

- Feb 20 is the ONLY DATE that has actually been shared with us. All other dates were fan speculations. I'm talking about Jan 7, Jan 12, Jan 17, Feb 8, Feb 14, Feb 15, Feb 17. All of those were predicted by fans on hopium.

Do I think we will get new content on Feb 20? It's not... impossible? What I am pretty sure about is that we will get answers on that day, whatever they are.

If this date is a fakeout again, I won't understand the point of the Stranger Things ARG anymore. Why let a confirmed plant hint at a specific date and not make anything happen? Why have this very calculated promotional timeline for weeks on end and there be no payoff? Just to string people along? That seems needlessly cruel, a puzzle is supposed to be fun and solvable too.

Despite that bleak possibility existing, I stay optimistic. The optimism remains that made me and many others believe and ultimately prove the existence of CG.

I feel like the wait is almost over considering my and other people's analyses, but I can never be certain. Gg everyone, thank you all for the laughs, the crash-outs and the theorizing. Final 🫂 before the chaos ensues.

How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale

Disclaimer: This is a post in a series of collaborative posts that provides evidence that the next piece of Stranger Things content is going to be an interactive film using Episode 2 to 8 as the base. #bandersnatchgate

Contributors: @thebestofmyrmidons @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @power-kinesis @nuffit @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate. Check out the thorough and well-substantiated post by @thebestofmyrmidons.

I present a sypnosis:

The type of delay of copyright registration by Netflix that has been witnessed for Episode 2 - Episode 8 of Stranger Things Season 5 has ONLY happened for interactive shows and movies.

Posts on this topic from me:

1. How promo leading up to "Bandersnatch" and "Kimmy vs the Reverend" followed the same patterns, just on a smaller scale.

2. The Netflix and DONTNOD 2025 collaboration and the Life is Strange parallels hiding in plain sight.

3. The ultimate conformitygate promotional timeline analysis

In my posts, I will argue that the promo for both Netflix originals "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend" is eerily similar to what we have witnessed for conformitygate (CG). We will realize together that these worked as a prototype for CG. Netflix did not only take the time to improve the interactive element in their backend (Post 2), but especially worked out their flaws in setting up a successful promotional puzzle (Post 1 and Post 3). My promotional timeline posts, from beginning to end, mirror what we are about to witness here.

Thanks to @fixthehyper for collecting most of the sources in chronological order :)

Promotional timeline for "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" (BMB):

2017

Dec 17: Report on Netflix's mission to create "choose your own adventure" media for adults. (Bloomberg)

https://archive.ph/OBvT1

2018

Oct 1: Speculations about an interactive Black Mirror episode in Season 5. (Bloomberg, Verge)

Oct 3: Speculations continue about an interactive Black Mirror episode in Season 5. (The Independent)

Nov 5: Shutdown of multiple rumors about Black Mirror Season 5 by show producer Charlie Booker. He did NOT respond to BMB rumors. (THEWRAP)

Nov 21: Rumors about BMB continue, the name "Bandersnatch" is dropped by a random Twitter account. (I feel so vindicated about my Nikki Baxter coverage btw)

Dec 2: A verified Netflix "leak" confirms Dec 28 release date. Note how fans already had been speculating for days in a similar fashion to conformitygate. (TVGUIDE, Forbes)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2018/12/02/black-mirror-gets-season-5-release-date-via-leak/#e1b5deb211b7

Dec 3: Netflix deletes a tweet with the BMB release date, further fueling the flames of this being a trustworthy "leak". The Stranger Things ARG has shown me that Netflix leaks information on purpose, especially on Twitter. (Observer, THEWRAP)

Dec 19: First confirmation by Netflix of BMB being the interactive stand alone movie from the rumors, rather than part of Black Mirror Season 5. A Reddit user is credited for finding it, but a preview was posted on Netflix. Notice how the OG Reddit thread, to be found in links provided, reeks of plant behavior. (Forbes, Esquire)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2018/12/19/black-mirror-bandersnatch-is-revealed-to-be-a-film-via-netflix-heres-what-we-know-so-far/#7ce5b3957d53

Dec 20: Explanation of the promotion of and the fan speculations on BMB up until that point. We have seen similar articles on CG in Jan and Feb (2026). (Screenrant, Digital Spy)

Dec 27: Official announcement of BMB

Dec 28 (2018): Release of BMB

Look at a summary on Wikipedia of the events leading up to the BMB release (parts were highlighted by @fixthehyper ):

People noticed inconsistencies, clues and easter eggs in the same way we are doing for CG. Social media accounts speculated and leaked info, mainstream media reported on it, to create hype. We also see an early, non-coincidental reference to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which eventually turned out to be a little tease for the other interactive movie that was released later, in 2020.

Short promotional timeline for "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy versus the Reverend" (KvR):

2020

April 16: One month prior, a surprise announcement!

Of course, this is a lot smaller in scale, but notice how Netflix preplans their interactive releases far in advance and cross-references them in promotion. This becomes relevant, especially when examining the parallels with the Stranger Things ARG. Check out the post on Kimmy vs the Reverend parallels by @thebestofmyrmidons . @fixthehyper also has a post with evidence that the script of Stranger Things Season 5 was already finished in Spring 2023!

I encourage everyone to participate in dissecting both these interactive movies to predict what's coming next. That task would be a lot easier if Netflix had not removed both of those in May 2025.

Ohhh nooo, why did they do that???

Disclaimer: This is a post in a series of collaborative posts that provides evidence that the next piece of Stranger Things content is going to be an interactive film using Episode 2 to 8 as the base.

⁠Bandersnatchgate Contributors:

@thebestofmyrmidons🌠 @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @power-kinesis @nuffit the notable ⋆.˚ ☾ @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate 🌠.Or shall I say ... copyrightgate 2.0.

Copyrightgate TLDR

As mentioned in my original post, and this and this follow-up post, there is a weird delay in the copyright registration of episodes 2-8 - it's now been almost 3 months since Volume 1, with no registration for any of those episodes in sight. This is very out of character for Netflix, that usually register copyrights for their flagship shows as soon as possible (the recent Bridgerton S4 volume 1 episodes were all registered within a week).

Some excerpts from my original post(s) are below:

"My main gripe with cut/copyrightgate is that if the missing scenes were added back into the original episodes, I know many people would be put off from rewatching if it’s just a case of “filling in the gaps”. 

"the season has 7 incredibly mediocre episodes (4 if you’re generous) that would ruin the rewatchability of season 5, even if volume 4 is incredible."

So, there are two main issues with both cutgate and copyrightgate (version 1.0), as I posited in my initial post:

release of a new volume wouldn't lead to a delay in copyright registration, and season 5, as a whole, has been mediocre, so adding new episodes will still ruin its rewatchability

similarly, releasing a single, "second" version of the current episodes with the additional cut scenes has the drawback that many people will not sit down and re-watch 7 episodes that they've already seen (even if they're altered)

I actually got so close to the answer in my original post, I can't believe I didn't even consider the possibility of an interactive film!

"I don’t know how they would do this. This type of “redo” may work for an interactive game like G ‘n G, but I genuinely wonder how this would bode for Stranger Things, and how they would pull this off."

Like I mention here, we know for a fact that the copyright registrations are delayed. But biases come in when we start interpreting why it was delayed.

Why cutgate no longer makes sense

Like I mentioned in my original post, I wasn't a fan of cutgate, and I thought it would be difficult to implement well.

While I still stand by original stance that episodes 2-8 aren't the finished versions of the work, I no longer believe that there is a single "second" version coming.

(The big flaw with this hypothesis is that, while it's annoying to have to register two versions of an episode, this hypothesis assumes that they're not at all interested in registering version 1 (i.e. the episodes we've already seen). This is problematic, as it assumes that Netflix is only interested in enforcing version 2, but doesn't care at all about version 1. While not ideal, it is still doable to register 2 versions, in principle, so the "two-version"/cutgate theory crumbles under pressure.)

But... then @whispering-goat asked me to look at the copyright registrations of Netflix' interactive media, which have multiple versions, multiple endings, multiple parallel timelines, and oh boy, did this open the floodgates...

The copyright registrations of Bandersnatch and Kimmy Schmidt vs the Reverend

Let's now look at the copyright registrations of Netflix' biggest and most expansive interactive films: Bandersnatch and Kimmy Schmidt vs the Reverend

First and foremost: the copyright for Bandersnatch was never registered.

Why? There are over a trillion different permutations (see here and here).

Even though there are approximately 5 major endings, there are many more different paths that can lead you to those endings (and other minor endings). One of those endings is the main character breaking the fourth wall and realising he is controlled by a 21st-century Netflix viewer, leading to a fight in his therapist's office.

It would've been (and indeed, it's proven to be) impossible to register Bandersnatch in a straightforward manner at the copyright office.

Secondly: the Kimmy Schmidt special had less permutations than Bandersnatch, and so the copyright was registered. However, the copyright registrations were both segmented and delayed past the 3-month mark.

I've been so busy trying to understand their copyright filing tactics compared to traditional episodes, that I haven't even considered looking at the registration timelines of the interactive media, which break the patterns we've observed with the Bridgerton, Squid Game, Stranger Things S4 etc. registrations.

The Kimmy Schmidt specials were registered as three separate paths: paths A, B, and C (starting to sound familiar?)

As I explain in my corresponding Kimmy Schmidt parallel post, there are broadly 3 major endings in Kimmy Schmidt, with one "good" ending, and two "bad" endings (see here too).

Although three registrations for three paths are filed, none of the paths are one linear segment. Broadly, speaking, there is one major ending in each path, with alternative nodes to get to the major ending(s), as well as some "early endings" that re-route you back to the major path.

What is happening with the season 5 registrations?

So now we have actual evidence that supports a more conclusive reason for the registration delays:

Episodes 2-8, as currently aired, are just one linear segment within one of those paths (i.e. doors).

Max explains those three paths:

Door 1: take your own life

Door 2: accept your fate

Door 3: ESCAPE

We also know that Hopper no longer presents Door 3 as an option to Mike in the epilogue, as he tells Mike he either can either:

Keep blaming himself and suffer (i.e. Door 1) OR

You find a way to accept what has happened (a.k.a. Door 2)

So what we've currently seen is one linear segment of the option Mike has chosen: Door 2: accept your fate. The episodes aren't registered, because this will be a broader path (representing Door 2) once the full interactive film launches.

So, to me, it seems likely that we'll get these three paths as an interactive film - the only "good" ending will be Door 3: Escape. And again, this might sound crazy, but I think it's highly probable that once the viewer does manage to escape, this will unlock an actual finale, in standard episodic form.

But why did they air episodes 2-8 and not launch the interactive film straight away?

This post by @power-kinesis explains how Max and Holly's Camazotz escape is actually a tutorial for the viewer on how to actually escape Camazotz via memories when the interactive film drops. This explains why they broke the fourth wall so much this season and gave directions to the audience multiple times.

The goal is to escape Camazotz - but we'll know if we've made the wrong choices (i.e. are on the wrong path) if we start overlapping with the path that we've already seen (i.e. existing episodes 2-8). They also had to prime the viewer to look out for clues and inconsistencies that signify that something is "off" about a scene and how to look for a way out by way of conformitygate!

This outcome also resolves the question we've all been having: why are they seemingly punishing their hardcore fans by ragebaiting us?

Airing the "second" versions of the "real" episodes will allow the GA to consume these mindlessly, as they have with S5. Whereas an interactive film rewards those who have been paying attention.

And also, we are aware of what exactly is wrong and why the ending is conformist. It's going to be a perfect way to hold up a mirror (ha! a Black Mirror) to those that had no issues with the current ending and, also, to those who refuse to acknowledge Mike's (suppressed) feelings for Will.

This will literally make the viewer choose between the blue pill and the red pill, Matrix-style. They either choose to face the reality, or stay in Camazotz.

All theories lead back to an interactive film

The great thing about this is that most of our conformitygate theories converge and can all be explained by an interactive film.

Multiverses/parallel universes? ✅

Travelling through memories Eternal Sunshine-style? ✅

Copyrightgate? ✅

Playgate? ✅

Bobgate? ✅

There are many more theories which can all converge: an interactive film is Occam's Razor. The most simple explanation for all of this nonsense.

And it's so in line with Netflix' MO (I mean they did it for one of their biggest IPs, Black Mirror, and then went all out for a smaller IP like Kimmy Schmidt). The more I think about it, the less sense it makes not to incorporate an interactive element into Stranger Things, their biggest show in its final season.

There will be more posts coming from other contributors, but Netflix have already announced that they will be collaborating with the game developers of Life is Strange for a mysterious, undisclosed Netflix IP (which many were already speculating to be Stranger Things).

They did a lot of mysterious ARG in the lead-up to Bandersnatch that is very similar to the conformitygate ARG - see @whispering-goat's post.

Many, many of the casts interviews actually now make sense (think Sadie's "butterfly" comment, Noah being confused by season 5 etc). I suspect that the actors didn't actually know which "ending(s)" would be initially aired when they gave their prerecorded interviews (they hadn't yet seen the finale), which explains all the seemingly contradictory statements.

All in all - I think we've finally gotten the answer as to what to except. Now we can patiently await the drop...

Contributors: @thebestofmyrmidons @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @nuffit @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate. Anticipate a thorough and well-substantiated post by @thebestofmyrmidons For now, I present a sypnosis:

The type of delay of copyright registration by Netflix that has been witnessed for Episode 2 - Episode 8 of Stranger Things Season 5 has only happened for interactive shows and movies.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There have been multiple fourth wall breaks throughout Season 5 that we fans have noticed. But what if those fourth wall breaks were essentially an indirect instruction manual to helping our heroes escape camazotz. What if they're actually transition points; similar to the branching choice moments in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch?

There were many times when the characters were speaking indirectly to the audience. The most famous one being:

We believe these moments that felt very out of place on first watch are actually hidden clues to solving the interactive film. In fact, we were literally given the framework by Max. Remember?

Door 1: Take your own life.

Door 2: Accept your fate (the conformity epilogue)

Door 3: You escape.

And that is what we believe this interactive experience is going to do. Give us a chance at door 3, escaping. This fits in with the symbolism of Derek playing Ghosts 'n Goblins in episode 3. The game you literally have to beat twice to truly win (and the second time is much harder). We have to "play" Season 5 twice. We have to earn the real ending.

What's the Goal of the interactive film?

It's been established in Season 5 that the way to escape camazotz is by travelling through memories to get to when Vecna first cursed you. We believe that's how we "win". We have to get to the first memory of Vecna cursing a character (our guess is either Mike or Will). TW: image of implied CSA

And in order to travel through memories, we have to keep an eye out for things that seem out of place i.e: look for changes in colours/objects. We may be required to spot the key differences in order to verify if something is a true memory or not. They've been giving us clues/instructions to help solve the interactive film all throughout Season 5.

This scene between Max and Holly acts as a "playthrough", if you will. When they couldn't find anything out of place with respect to colour. They tried to look for something that could link to another memory.

And we are expected to retrace our steps. We will probably get things wrong and get stuck in a loop but each wrong turn just amplifies the psychological horror that season 5 has been exploring.

And there CAN be more than one path. But we believe that the end goal is still the same i.e: get to Vecna's first memory of Will or Mike.

We were told time and time again that music is one of the keys to escaping Vecna's Curse along with anything that connects you to the real world. That hasn't changed. Music is still very important. We have to make sure we pick the right record.

However, there's about 45 hours worth of content to revise and it is impossible to remember every detail from every scene! But, thanks to @fixthehyper we have a spreadsheet compiling all the questions (and answers) from the (now privated) Jan 23rd Quiz!

We can all agree that that quiz was very weird, with only 5 questions to do with season 5, drawing attention to the missing characters such as Dr.Owens/Susie/Argyle etc. They even answered a question incorrectly!

Question 60: Who does this item belong to? [Michael Myers Mask]

Answer: Eddie

Eddie borrowed the mask from Max, who wore it in season 2, so the answer should've been Max!

We believe that we'll need our knowledge from previous seasons to escape Camazotz and that these questions are giving us a clue to what we should be looking out for in the interactive film i.e: dialogue, belongings, logos, locations to name a few. Basically we need to be looking for missing pieces of the puzzle.

And to wrap it up, Finn once said in an interview that Byler "wouldn't feel that earned". Maybe that doesn't just apply to the characters and storyline but to us as well. We (the audience) have to work for it. And if that's true, this could open the GA's eyes to Byler.

Thank you @thebestofmyrmidons for literally 70% of the screenshots!

I was just minding my own business, working on my upcoming #bandersnatchgate post. But, then:

This was posted on Feb 16, 2026. Hello...? Is this ragebait specifically targetting me...? Stranger Things social media team are you there...?

Who even is @UDScoopMedia aka Upside Down News? Why do they have insider info on this show??? Of course, @HawkinsHappenings retweets them, of course! And, everyone clapped and believed them too, naturally!!!

Release me from the Upside Down. These fake-ass leakers, plant-ass Twitter accounts. I feel like I am opening Misinformation Matryoshka's every single day.

I am not actually mad, I found this really funny. Wouldn't it be kind of awesome if the Stranger Things social media team saw my and other people's coverage of Nikki Baxter and was like: You know what, what if we keep dropping vaguer and vaguer leaks on more and more obscure Twitter accounts? That will show them!

I'll leave you with this masterpiece my friend @fixthehyper made:

Stop falling for misinformation and believing unverified sources!!!

Two Stranger Things related events happened on February 15th (2026), both of which are reported on in the vaguest, weirdest, game of telephone, type of way. Sometimes I feel like I am the only one who is screaming, crying and throwing up about this. When will people learn their lesson? Is Media Literacy in the room with us right now???

Let's start with reports on the Broadway Show The First Shadow, which had been on hiatus from Feb 8 to Feb 14:

Okay, so they copied their information, let's check the only semi-official Stranger Things update account @Updates_SThings:

Et tu, Brute? According to some attendees?! Who??? CITE YOUR SOURCES!!! Is it this Reddit Post per chance:

ONE FAN!!! ONE!!! They claim to be a mega fan and seem genuine in their post history, but they could lie, accidentally misremember, spread this info, true or untrue, purposefully for the Stranger Things meta narrative. The fact is, we don't know. We Do Not Know. One first person account is not enough to report so confidently on this, it really isn't :(

Then we had another situation: The "Birthday Bash" for the Duffer Brothers on Feb 15. I initially didn't even want to report on this happening at all, it seemed like a fan organized event, by the group "strangerthings.tours":

Those two ladies are amazing singers! Good job. The video is a little off, most notably the Duffer Brothers faces plastered everywhere (lol), the byler color-coded cakes and the ominous zoom in on Vecna.

I would think nothing of it if someone didn't decide to post their first person account in the #watergatefiles tag anonymously? Why would someone post about this in our very niche conformitygate theorist tag anonymously?

Stop ittt. Why are people taking this information for granted? Wouldn't one of us boast about going there? Take some pictures. Come on now :'(

Disclaimer: This is a post in a series of collaborative posts that provides evidence that the next piece of Stranger Things content is going to be an interactive film using Episode 2 to 8 as the base.

⁠Bandersnatchgate Contributors:

@thebestofmyrmidons🌠 @fixthehyper @whispering-goat @vecnapilled @power-kinesis @nuffit the notable ⋆.˚ ☾ @arubikhandy0707

An exciting revelation has been made by a group of conformitygate theorists. At the center lies #copyrightgate 🌠.Or shall I say ... copyrightgate 2.0.

Copyrightgate TLDR

As mentioned in my original post, and this and this follow-up post, there is a weird delay in the copyright registration of episodes 2-8 - it's now been almost 3 months since Volume 1, with no registration for any of those episodes in sight. This is very out of character for Netflix, that usually register copyrights for their flagship shows as soon as possible (the recent Bridgerton S4 volume 1 episodes were all registered within a week).

Some excerpts from my original post(s) are below:

"My main gripe with cut/copyrightgate is that if the missing scenes were added back into the original episodes, I know many people would be put off from rewatching if it’s just a case of “filling in the gaps”. 

"the season has 7 incredibly mediocre episodes (4 if you’re generous) that would ruin the rewatchability of season 5, even if volume 4 is incredible."

So, there are two main issues with both cutgate and copyrightgate (version 1.0), as I posited in my initial post:

release of a new volume wouldn't lead to a delay in copyright registration, and season 5, as a whole, has been mediocre, so adding new episodes will still ruin its rewatchability

similarly, releasing a single, "second" version of the current episodes with the additional cut scenes has the drawback that many people will not sit down and re-watch 7 episodes that they've already seen (even if they're altered)

I actually got so close to the answer in my original post, I can't believe I didn't even consider the possibility of an interactive film!

"I don’t know how they would do this. This type of “redo” may work for an interactive game like G ‘n G, but I genuinely wonder how this would bode for Stranger Things, and how they would pull this off."

Like I mention here, we know for a fact that the copyright registrations are delayed. But biases come in when we start interpreting why it was delayed.

Why cutgate no longer makes sense

Like I mentioned in my original post, I wasn't a fan of cutgate, and I thought it would be difficult to implement well.

While I still stand by original stance that episodes 2-8 aren't the finished versions of the work, I no longer believe that there is a single "second" version coming.

(The big flaw with this hypothesis is that, while it's annoying to have to register two versions of an episode, this hypothesis assumes that they're not at all interested in registering version 1 (i.e. the episodes we've already seen). This is problematic, as it assumes that Netflix is only interested in enforcing version 2, but doesn't care at all about version 1. While not ideal, it is still doable to register 2 versions, in principle, so the "two-version"/cutgate theory crumbles under pressure.)

But... then @whispering-goat asked me to look at the copyright registrations of Netflix' interactive media, which have multiple versions, multiple endings, multiple parallel timelines, and oh boy, did this open the floodgates...

The copyright registrations of Bandersnatch and Kimmy Schmidt vs the Reverend

Let's now look at the copyright registrations of Netflix' biggest and most expansive interactive films: Bandersnatch and Kimmy Schmidt vs the Reverend

First and foremost: the copyright for Bandersnatch was never registered.

Why? There are over a trillion different permutations (see here and here).

Even though there are approximately 5 major endings, there are many more different paths that can lead you to those endings (and other minor endings). One of those endings is the main character breaking the fourth wall and realising he is controlled by a 21st-century Netflix viewer, leading to a fight in his therapist's office.

It would've been (and indeed, it's proven to be) impossible to register Bandersnatch in a straightforward manner at the copyright office.

Secondly: the Kimmy Schmidt special had less permutations than Bandersnatch, and so the copyright was registered. However, the copyright registrations were both segmented and delayed past the 3-month mark.

I've been so busy trying to understand their copyright filing tactics compared to traditional episodes, that I haven't even considered looking at the registration timelines of the interactive media, which break the patterns we've observed with the Bridgerton, Squid Game, Stranger Things S4 etc. registrations.

The Kimmy Schmidt specials were registered as three separate paths: paths A, B, and C (starting to sound familiar?)

As I explain in my corresponding Kimmy Schmidt parallel post, there are broadly 3 major endings in Kimmy Schmidt, with one "good" ending, and two "bad" endings (see here too).

Although three registrations for three paths are filed, none of the paths are one linear segment. Broadly, speaking, there is one major ending in each path, with alternative nodes to get to the major ending(s), as well as some "early endings" that re-route you back to the major path.

What is happening with the season 5 registrations?

So now we have actual evidence that supports a more conclusive reason for the registration delays:

Episodes 2-8, as currently aired, are just one linear segment within one of those paths (i.e. doors).

Max explains those three paths:

Door 1: take your own life

Door 2: accept your fate

Door 3: ESCAPE

We've also know that Hopper no longer presents Door 3 as an option to Mike in the epilogue, as he tells Mike he either can either:

Keep blaming himself and suffer (i.e. Door 1) OR

You find a way to accept what has happened (a.k.a. Door 2)

So what we've currently seen is one linear segment of the option Mike has chosen: Door 2: accept your fate. The episodes aren't registered, because this will be a broader path (representing Door 2) once the full interactive film launches.

So, to me, it seems likely that we'll get these three paths as an interactive film - the only "good" ending will be Door 3: Escape. And again, this might sound crazy, but I think it's highly probable that once the viewer does manage to escape, this will unlock an actual finale, in standard episodic form.

But why did they air episodes 2-8 and not launch the interactive film straight away?

A post is coming by @fixthehyper soon that explains how Max and Holly's Camazotz escape is actually a tutorial for the viewer on how to actually escape Camazotz via memories when the interactive film drops. This explains why they broke the fourth wall so much this season and gave directions to the audience multiple times.

The goal is to escape Camazotz - but we'll know if we've made the wrong choices (i.e. are on the wrong path) if we start overlapping with the path that we've already seen (i.e. existing episodes 2-8). They also had to prime the viewer to look out for clues and inconsistencies that signify that something is "off" about a scene and how to look for a way out by way of conformitygate!

This outcome also resolves the question we've all been having: why are they seemingly punishing their hardcore fans by ragebaiting us?

Airing the "second" versions of the "real" episodes will allow the GA to consume these mindlessly, as they have with S5. Whereas an interactive film rewards those who have been paying attention.

And also, we are aware of what exactly is wrong and why the ending is conformist. It's going to be a perfect way to hold up a mirror (ha! a Black Mirror) to those that had no issues with the current ending and, also, to those who refuse to acknowledge Mike's (suppressed) feelings for Will.

This will literally make the viewer choose between the blue pill and the red pill, Matrix-style. They either choose to face the reality, or stay in Camazotz.

All theories lead back to an interactive film

The great thing about this is that most of our conformitygate theories converge and can all be explained by an interactive film.

Multiverses/parallel universes? ✅

Travelling through memories Eternal Sunshine-style? ✅

Copyrightgate? ✅

Playgate? ✅

Bobgate? ✅

There's so many more theories and these all converge: an interactive film is Occam's Razor. The most simple explanation for all of this nonsense.

And it's so in line with Netflix' MO (I mean they did it for one of their biggest IPs, Black Mirror, and then went all out for a smaller IP like Kimmy Schmidt). The more I think about it, the less sense it makes not to incorporate an interactive element into Stranger Things, their biggest show in its final season.

There will be more posts coming from other contributors, but Netflix have already announced that they will be collaborating with the game developers of Life is Strange for a mysterious, undisclosed Netflix IP (which many were already speculating to be Stranger Things).

They did a lot of mysterious ARG in the lead-up to Bandersnatch that is very similar to the conformitygate ARG, and you can expect a post on this very soon from @whispering-goat!

Many, many of the casts interviews actually now make sense (think Sadie's "butterfly" comment, Noah being confused by season 5 etc). I suspect that the actors didn't actually know which "ending(s)" would be initially aired when they gave their prerecorded interviews (they hadn't yet seen the finale), which explains all the seemingly contradictory statements.

All in all - I think we've finally gotten answer to what to except. Now we can patiently await the drop...