New Stranger Things 5 Photos Reveal Hidden Timeline Clues with Secret Metadata
It’s been yet another busy day for Stranger Things news. At long last, the trailer has dropped (earlier than expected for some!), and fans have spent all day dissecting the trailer, and for good reason, it’s absolutely packed with details. Alongside the trailer, Netflix dropped a bunch of images. Thanks to some handy detective work, we can piece together which episodes and how far into them they are.
Where is this data coming from? Most pictures on the internet have metadata. This data helps identify a picture’s attributes, such as when it was taken. For Netflix pictures, they often include hidden timestamps, indicating which episode and what time within that episode the picture takes place. Given all the pictures released thus far, we can paint a pretty good timeline for volume 1.
For one example below —the picture of Holly and Mike —we found that the metadata value, Stranger_Things_n_S5_E1_00_41_00_14_R. The S5 marks season five, E1 marks episode one, and the long string of numbers indicates a specific time code inside that episode. Here, 00_41_00_14 translates to 41 minutes and 0 seconds into the episode, with 14 referring to the frame number at that timestamp. Think of it as a little breadcrumb trail for editors and archivists, pointing to a precise moment in the footage. The final R usually denotes a revision stage or version used during production workflows.
Not all the new snaps came with metadata, though. We’ll save them for another time.
With thanks to UpsideDownScoop (and a few other X detectives, such as the incredible work by byrhop aka Ris by producing in-depth timeline documents), we can put together a pretty good timeline based on all the pictures released thus far, including the new ones from today and those from the last big drop this Summer.
Let’s get into it, and a warning, although these are all promotional photos, that doesn’t mean they don’t technically count as spoilers. Particularly one photo at the end!
Chapter One: The Crawl
Runtime: 1 hour and 8 minutes
Episode 1 (Expected) at 6 minutes, 57 seconds, 0 frames
Episode 1 at 12 minutes, 46 seconds, 2 frames.
Episode 1 at 41 minutes, 0 seconds, 14 frames.
Episode 1 at 48 minutes, 6 seconds, 1 frame
Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler
Runtime: 54 minutes
No pictures released today or recently for this one have data…
Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap
Runtime: 1 hour and 6 minutes
19 minutes, 16 seconds, 11 frames.
27 minutes, 46 seconds, and 23 frames
Chapter Four: Sorcerer
Runtime: 1 hour and 23 minutes
Episode 4, Scene 79, shot 75 (No Timestamp)
Episode 4 at 1 hour, 14 minutes, 12 seconds, 18 frames.
Episode 4 at 1 hour, 16 minutes, 5 seconds, 0 frames.
All The Other New Photos Released Today!
Not all the photos released today came with interesting metadata, sadly plotting their exact episode number. Here’s the remainder of the snaps – let us know which episodes you think they take place in.
When are we getting more news? The Duffer Brothers are now in Europe for Lucca Comics & Games, with the trailer being revealed (again, I guess?) and a big Q&A alongside cast members Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, and Finn Wolfhard. You can see the full global tour schedule for Stranger Things S5 here.