Some Stranger Things fans thought they had mourned the last of the Netflix series; others refused to accept that it was truly over. Just days after the season 5 finale dropped on the streamer — and played in theaters — a theory called “Conformity Gate” spread on social media, claiming that episode 9 was coming out. So, is the theory real, or is it completely baseless?
Below, News47.us unpacks “Conformity Gate” and what the Stranger Things cast and crew have said about the show’s ending.
Dubbed “Conformity Gate,” online users spread a viral theory that a new episode of Stranger Things season 5 was going to be released.
Stranger Things fans explaining conformity gate: pic.twitter.com/WO2pl9Rbbd
— The Cinéprism (@TheCineprism) January 6, 2026
As seen across TikTok and X.com primarily, fans said that “Conformity Gate” began due to viewers’ criticism of how the Duffer Brothers ended the show.
Many pointed out that, in one of the final scenes, the main characters aligned their books to spell the letters “XALIE,” which fans argued meant that Dimension X is a lie. These conspiracy theorists believed the finale was all in Vecna’s mind and that, therefore, it wasn’t real.
“The entire Stranger Things fandom currently in a collective psychosis coming up with a theory called Conformity Gate as a coping mechanism because the Duffers writing was genuinely THAT bad,” one person tweeted.
