Whether it’s a highly anticipated Netflix series or the biggest video game release of all time, the wait for some of our favorite pieces of media is long. And when it comes to Grand Theft Auto 6 and Stranger Things’ final season, fans have been waiting patiently to see what the creators have cooked up for the latest installment.
The good news is that Stranger Things Season 5 is less than a month away, or at least the first four episodes of the season are. And it just so happens that while the Stranger Things cast was promoting the imminent season’s release, Grand Theft Auto 6 announced a delay from May 2026 to November 2026.
Stranger Things Stars Have Become Adults While Waiting for GTA 6
As many of the Stranger Things cast grew up in front of our eyes, their particular tastes have been well-known to their ravenous fans. And with the Grand Theft Auto 6 delay on everyone’s minds, some were curious to know what the cast might think about the shift from May to November. Specifically, Gaten Matarazzo had a funny quip about Rockstar Games shifting Grand Theft Auto 6’s release date once again.
Matarazzo cheekily puts into perspective how long it has been since Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto 6, saying that they completed a whole series in the time since. The actor has also grown from a kid to an adult in that time, as many of GTA 5’s biggest fans have had to wait over a decade for the next game to release.
Grand Theft Auto 5 was originally released back in 2013 and was a massive hit for Rockstar Games. It has been ported to almost every major platform under the sun, been updated for modern consoles, and continued to chart on the best seller list. The game is an anomaly, and Grand Theft Auto 6 looks poised to set the world on fire when it eventually releases. But, it wasn’t as if Stranger Things was churning out seasons either.
With a show like Stranger Things, the road to Season 5 has been par for the course of a popular TV series. Season 1 first premiered in 2016 and was a smash hit for Netflix. The streaming service moved quickly to release a second season in 2017, but then the release cadence slowed quite a bit.
The gap between Seasons 2 and 3 was two years, whereas the gaps between the subsequent seasons have been three years, leading to Season 5’s premiere in 2025. In total, it has taken 9 years to get from Season 1 to Season 5, which by TV standards is slow but has become a lot more common when it comes to prestige TV and series on streaming services.
And even then, Grand Theft Auto 5 was released three years prior to the Stranger Things Season 1 premiere, and Grand Theft Auto 6 will release a year after the show has concluded. It’s just another example of how long Rockstar Games has been working on the follow-up to its popular open-world crime series.
Obviously, there was a Red Dead Redemption 2 release in between GTA 5 and GTA 6, so Rockstar hasn’t been radio silent since 2013. Not to mention, the ongoing support for GTA Online – the success of which is largely why there hasn’t been a rush to move onto GTA 6 – has kept the development team plenty busy.
Stranger Things Season 5 is in the home stretch, and while Grand Theft Auto 6’s finish line has been shifted by 6 months, it’s getting closer. Both are sure to be huge successes regardless of the wait.
