Empire Magazine Issue 447 (December 2025) Stranger Things

The Upside Down is calling! Stranger Things 5 is nearly here, ready to close out the smash-hit retro sci-fi adventure series for good – and Empire is here to take you inside the final season in our latest issue.

Stranger Things 5 - Get ready for the final campaign. Empire joins the Duffer brothers in Stranger Things HQ to get the inside story on the epic finale – with upgrades for Eleven and Vecna, brand new characters, and higher stakes than ever before. Bitchin’.

Stranger Things Oral History - Across a decade, the young cast of Stranger Things have grown alongside their characters. Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp and more reflect on the entire series in a brand new oral history.

Wake Up Dead Man - Benoit Blanc is back! Empire goes to church with writer-director Rian Jonson to learn more about the next Knives Out mystery, unspooling a miraculous murder – also speaking to Daniel Craig, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, and more.

George Clooney and Adam Sandler - With Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach teams Clooney and Sandler as – respectively – an A-list film star and his long-suffering manager. The pair unite for a joint interview, on their friendship, their relationship with the movies, and what they love about each other’s work.

Back To The Future At 40: Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd - Great Scott! It really has been four decades since Doc Brown blasted Marty McFly back to the 1950s. In a major new interview, Empire reunites Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd to reflect on the trilogy, and the formidable friendship it forged between them.

Sigourney Weaver - The legendary Sigourney Weaver has been burning up the screen for decades now – and she reunites with James Cameron once more for Avatar: Fire And Ash, she looks back on her sci-fi classics, her legacy, and what comes next for Kiri.

Pillion - You’ve never seen a film quite like Pillion – a biker-centric BDSM romance. Stars Alexander Skargård and Harry Melling, along with feature-debut writer-director Harry Lighton, talk about making a bold, uncompromising original.

First Word - This month’s news section explores the ‘Tilly Norwood’ AI debate, goes on set of Fallout Season 2, talks boxing biopic Christy with Sydney Sweeney, gets to the heart of Hamnet with Chloé Zhao, uncovers a new kind of body horror with Alpha’s Julia Ducournau, and much more. Plus, David Lowery pays tribute to the late, great Robert Redford in a piece written exclusively for Empire.

Final Cut - In the home entertainment section, we dig into the fallout of Alien: Earth with Noah Hawley, speak to Sam Neill about how he became an accidental horror hero, rank the Final Destination movies, talk through the career of Orlando Bloom with the man himself, uncover the secrets of Elio with directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, and plenty more.

Reviews - In this issue, you’ll find reviews of Kathryn Bigelow’s nail-biting nuclear thriller A House Of Dynamite, Lynne Ramsay’s long-awaited comeback Die My Love, Noah Baumbach’s Hollywood tale Jay Kelly, Daniel Day-Lewis’ return to movies in Anemone, Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic adaptation Frankenstein, Riz Ahmed crime thriller Relay, and much more.

Check out the Empire website.