Stranger Things made its long-awaited return to streaming just in time for Thanksgiving. After a three-year break, the hit Netflix series returned to Hawkins for one final adventure, being released in three volumes throughout the 2025 holiday season.

Amid this storyline, some of the characters are also coping with issues in their personal lives. In particular, Nancy Wheeler (Dyer) is again finding herself caught between her redeemed ex, Steve Harrington (Keery), and her distant boyfriend, Jonathan Byers (Heaton). This love triangle has drawn largely mixed reactions from fans, and Dyer herself has recently weighed in.

“This is a pressure-cooker situation,” Dyer said about Nancy and Jonathan in an interview with Variety. “Obviously, in the last season, they were apart for a long time, and then when they come back to each other — I mean, there’s so much pressure and stress.”

Moreover, the actress felt that the life-or-death stakes of the series make its relationships more complex. She explained: “It gets put [into] perspective, I think: what matters, what you care about, where you can spend your energy, what demands it of you. And I think in a situation where you’ve been faced with death, with monsters, with these elements, there’s growing.”

Additionally, Nancy being a leader among the younger cast means her love life isn’t as top-of-mind. “She’s definitely in a place where she’s running on a survival level, but still figuring herself out and figuring her life out, and even what a life looks [like] and will there be a life?” Dyer mused. “There’s definitely friction going on, but I think her focus right now is fighting Vecna, running these crawls, doing that planning work.“

Stranger Things Steve Jonathan and Nancy in season 1

Despite her focus being on Nancy’s present, the actress reiterated that her future matters too. “After 10 years, you can’t help but really feel invested in these characters and their story. You want them to end up in a way that feels right. Not just the idealistic, most perfect, beautiful version, but when you’ve lived through this, you want them to come out with something that feels earned or deserved or that makes sense.”

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 released on November 26, 2025. Volume 2 and the series finale will premiere on December 25, 2025, and December 31, 2025, respectively. All released seasons are available to stream on Netflix.