Anonymous hacker claims season 5 episodes of Stranger Things wll leak this week
Updated August 15 as initial release timeline expires.
In the aftermath of the shocking compromise of Netflix footage last week, an anonymous hacker linked to the breach claimed episodes from the forthcoming fifth and final series of Stranger Things would be released publicly on Wednesday 14th.
According to Soap Central, “the anonymous leaker has insisted that he has the first three episodes of Stranger Things Season 5… While this may be a false claim, it hasn’t stopped fans of the show from worrying about the future of the production and spoilers before its official release.”
While anticipation built online, the initial August 14 timeline passed with no signs of the promised episodes—just more speculation. The source of the initial claim continued to promise episodes would release on either his Telegram channel or a Discord channel, relying on credibility from the initial compromised material to convince others that the Stranger Things leak was real.
If that leak is real and there’s a plausible explanation for the delay, it could be that as the clock ticked down towards the initial timeline the original Telegram leaks channel was shut down for copyright reasons—possibly some background activity involving Telegram and lawmakers from Netflix or elsewhere.
“Honestly guys, I’m not having a great day, Jace Johnson posted on X. “My account is under attack, My Telegram group was deleted And I’ll probably get sued. I’ll take a small break and try to figure out where I’ll post the next leak.” A new “Movies” Telegram channel was then set up and shared, albeit at the time of writing there has been no further tangible evidence of the Stranger Things leak, albeit some screenshots of Sonic 3 have been shared on those same channels.
There was always well-placed skepticism as regards the Stranger Things leaks. The original source of the actual compromised material did not include those Season 5 episodes, with the claim always being that they had come from elsewhere.
That confirmed compromise—which did not include Stranger Things—impacted one of Netflix’s partners. IGN reported that it was animation titles including “Arcane, Terminator Zero, Dandadan, Ranma ½,” that leaked, with material pushed over social media channels including X and 4Chan.
A Netflix spokesperson told The Verge that “one of our post production partners has been compromised and footage from several of our titles has unfortunately leaked online. Our team is aggressively taking action to have it taken down.”
In a statement, localization services provider Iyuno acknowledged, “a recent security issue, involving unauthorized access to confidential content. Protecting our clients’ confidentiality and ensuring the security of their content is our highest priority. We are actively investigating this security breach to mitigate any potential risks and identify the responsible parties.”
The situation regarding Stranger Things was always less clear, albeit it quickly became wrapped up within the various X and Telegram feeds that had pushed out and then publicized the original leaks, awarding it that added credibility.
This forthcoming season of Stranger Things “will be the last of the series.” As reported by Soap Central, “the release date for Season 5 has not been announced yet, the final season promises to be an explosive one.”
While these new leak claims have been made and the wider compromise might suggest some substance, fans of the show will need to wait to see if there’s any truth to this. But given the low-quality and illegal nature of the material, even if episodes are released, fans should steer well clear and not download any of the illicit material.
Quite apart from the breach itself, well-publicized compromises such as this become a hackers playground, with inexperienced users of such sites tempted to download files and even install apps they’d never normally access. Fortunately, it already seems that fans are pushing back and urging others to await the official release.
The last post in the “Movies” Telegram leaks channel—at the time of writing—was intriguingly “sorry guys I was talking to my lawyers about something important… Let’s Break The Internet.” The skepticism continues, but expectation has not abated.
I have contacted Netflix for any comments on these latest claims.
