The creators of Stranger Things say “meaningful” comments from fans suggest the series will have a “great legacy”.

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The hit Netflix show, made by Matt and Ross Duffer, has returned to TV screens for its fifth and final series, aired in three parts.

Ross said: “I think that the most meaningful thing is when fans come up and they go, ‘You know, I was struggling at this time because of this and the show helped me get through that’.

“That means the most to us because we were nerdy outsiders growing up, and especially for us, high school was really hard for us to get through.

“Entertainment and movies and stuff did help us survive that.

“So if this show can help people, if they see themselves in these characters, and they see them overcoming these obstacles and conflicts as these kids are growing up, if that helps them through life in any way, even a small way, then that’s a great legacy to have.”

The first series of the supernatural coming-of-age drama followed a psychokinetic girl named Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, as she escaped from a laboratory in Hawkins and made friends with a group of young boys who embarked on a mission to find their friend Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) after he became lost in an alternative reality called the Upside Down.

Brown, who was 12 when the series launched, thanked the Duffer brothers in an Instagram post ahead of the launch of volume one.

The 21-year-old said: “This show has given me so much, but most importantly, the most meaningful story to tell, El’s.

“Thank you to the Duffers for taking a chance on everything you shouldn’t have wanted, a British girl, with a huge family, a lot of energy, a strong point of view, but a heart that would work tirelessly for the character you built.

“Enjoy volume 1, folks. See you on the right side up.”

Season 4 saw psychokinetic villain Vecna tear a rift through the town of Hawkins and infiltrate the mind of Max Mayfield, played by Sadie Sink, causing her to go into a coma.

The fifth and final season picks up in the fall of 1987, with Hawkins, Indiana, scarred by the opening of the Rifts at the end of Season 4 and the group of friends united in their efforts to find and kill Vecna. But that’s easier said than done since his whereabouts are unknown, and Hawkins is under lockdown.

“I think what’s unique about this season is that it starts a little bit in chaos because our heroes ultimately lost at the end of Season 4,” Ross said.

Co-creator Matt Duffer noted that “nothing in Hawkins is normal anymore,” and the characters’ “movement is restricted, and there are Big Brother cameras everywhere”.

Familiar friends will join some new faces in Stranger Things 5 – including Linda Hamilton as the mysterious Dr Kay, Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler and Jake Connelly as potty-mouthed bully Derek Turnbow.

Star Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Vecna, revealed to fans online this week that episode eight in the new series was his favourite, adding that there were some “very important visitors” to the set during the filming of the episode.

“Normally when you’re filming a show of this size, when you get to your final episodes you don’t have many visitors, and we had some visitors, some very important visitors coming on the day that I had no idea were going to be there.

“I was already tripping out about the scene. And it ended up being one of the most powerful things I think I laid down in the show.

“I’m gonna leave it there.”

Speaking about his inspirations for his performance as Vecna and Henry Creel, Bower said he used a combination of real people and fictional characters.

“So for Vecna I used Doug Bradley as Pinhead when I was making the voice. Even Christopher Lee as Dracula as well.

“I used a lot of movies, there’s a lot of vampire references for some reason. There’s a movie called Prince of Darkness that I used.”

Meanwhile he described the 1997 psychological thriller Funny Games as a “huge inspiration” for creating Henry Creel, a boy with psychic abilities before becoming Vecna.

Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer and Maya Hawke are among the stars of Stranger Things.

The show started in 2016 and the franchise has since expanded into a play, titled Stranger Things: The First Shadow, as well as an upcoming animated spin-off, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85.

Stranger Things volume two arrives on Boxing Day and the finale is on New Year’s Day.