THIS IS THE END

STRANGER THINGS FIVE'S VOLUME ONE ROCKED OUR WORLD. SFX SPEAKS TO THE TEAM BEHIND THE SHOW ABOUT THOSE HUGE REVELATIONS - AND WHAT'S COMING IN VOLUME TWO.

- JACK SHEPHERD

THE DUFFER BROTHERS SHOULDN'T REALLY BE HERE.

They should, they tell SFX, be working on the final episodes of Stranger Things Five. But instead, they're in Italy, having just stepped off stage at Lucca Comics & Games convention, where they debuted the trailer for the new season.

"Honestly, the last episodes are very close to being finished," says Ross, sitting beside his twin brother, Matt, who's politely trying not to yawn too much as the jet lag kicks in. "All the episodes are locked in, so it's really just down to music, VFX and sound for the final episodes. But we're getting very, very close." Fortunately the first four episodes of Volume One are complete enough for SFX to watch them in their totality, meaning now, finally, after speaking to the pair for last month's cover feature, we can talk spoilers - and there's a lot to talk about. A quick recap of where we left our heroes: Max is alive, but her consciousness is trapped in a dreamworld; Dustin, Steve, Nancy and Jonathan are stuck in the Upside Down; Eleven and Hopper just found Kali, AKA Number Eight; and Vecna has stolen a bunch of Hawkins' kids just before Robin, Joyce, Lucas and Mike could save them. But the biggest moment of all is no doubt the final shot of "Sorcerer", when Will's nose starts to leak blood after unlocking his telekinetic powers and using them to obliterate multiple Demogorgons before they could harm any of his friends.

"It's something we've been planning to do and have been talking about doing every season, really," Ross says, opening up about the instantly iconic moment for one of the first times.

"I mean, if we were going to do it, we knew obviously it needed to happen now, in the final season. So it was satisfying to finally do it."