Stranger Things season 4 is due to premiere on Netflix this week, and we literally cannot wait, knowing that the beloved Netflix sci-fi hasn’t shown new episodes in over 3 years.
More than enough teasers and insights from creators of the Duffer Brothers have kept us entertained in recent months, and the show’s debut promo promises an exciting new season. So the next set of episodes isn’t far away, Stranger Things season 4 has been divided in two, so we’ll have to wait a little longer.
For the time being, we’ve compiled everything we know about Stranger Things season 4, from the confirmed cast to a dissection of the video we’ve seen so far, as well as an investigation into when (and where) the season could be set, the films that inspired the new episodes, and so much more.
Stranger Things season 4 release date
The release date for Stranger Things season 4 has been revealed by Netflix. The first half of the new season will premiere on May 27, followed by the second half on July 1. There’s no information on how many episodes each batch will contain.
Why are there two different release dates? The showrunners, the Duffer brothers, stated in a statement that the next season is the most ambitious ever, which means it will take longer to complete than expected. As a result, the episodes will be released in two installments. “It’ll be here shortly,” the two said. “It’s bigger than it’s ever been.”
Stranger Things season 5 will also be the final season of the franchise. The season will conclude with the current plot. The showrunners have also hinted at “many more interesting stories to tell inside the universe of Stranger Things,” which, if we’re being honest, seems like an open invitation for someone to come along and create a spin-off show.
Stranger Things season 4 trailer
Stranger Things Season 4 has released its first full-length trailer. In the video above, the group faces a significant threat, while Eleven is dealing with the loss of her powers. The trouble is that she’s the only one who can put an end to a looming conflict. We also see Hopper, who is still in captivity, as well as the other sorts (who are looking very grown-up).
Stranger Things season 4 cast
Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Sadie Sink (Max), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Joe Keery (Steve), Cara Buono (Karen), Winona Ryder (Joyce), Noah Schnapp (Will), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) and, of course, Millie Bobby Brown (Mike) are (Robin).
“I wanna see Robin at the video store, so many of the great minds of the ’80s and ’80s filmmakers and creatives started out working in video stores, and as far as I know, that environment hasn’t really been explored on TV. I think that would be really fun.” Hawke said.
We also haven’t seen the last of Brett Gelman’s Murray Bauman, who has become a season regular. And, despite a wordless cameo in the season 3 finale, Paul Reiser’s Dr. Sam Owens will undoubtedly play a part in the upcoming season. Erica, Lucas’ younger sister, is also returned, played by Priah Ferguson.
Then there are the newbies. Stranger Things season 4 has added three new regulars to the cast. Peter Ballard, who is described as ” an orderly at a psychiatric hospital” and is “tired of the brutality he witnesses day after day” will be played by Jamie Campbell Bower (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Sweeney Todd). That sounds like someone who has ties to Eleven’s past.
Argyle, Jonathan’s new best buddy and a “fun-loving stoner who proudly delivers delicious pizza pies for Surfer Boy Pizza” is played by Eduardo Franco (Booksmart, The Binge). Joseph Quinn (Catherine the Great, Howards End) joins the cast as Eddie Munson, the owner of The Hellfire Club.
Eight recurring characters join those three regulars. Lt. Colonel Sullivan will be played by Sherman Augustus (Into the Badlands, Westworld), who believes he can halt the evil in Hawkins. Jason Carver, a rich, gorgeous kid who is dating the most popular girl in school, will be played by Mason Dye (Bosch, The Goldbergs).
Jason’s ideal environment begins to disintegrate as a new evil threatens Hawkins, according to Netflix’s description of him.
a seedy and unpredictable Russian smuggler who loves bad jokes, cold hard cash, and crunchy style peanut butter,” says Nikola Djuricko (Genius, In The Land of Blood and Honey). Russian? So you could be working with Hopper in Russia?
Victor Creel, “a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the ’50s. will be played by Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise).
Dmitri, a Russian jail guard who befriends Hopper, will be played by Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones, Jack Ryan). There’s some concern about whether he can be trusted, as there will be with most of these new people.
That’s not all of the new features – Amybeth McNulty, who played Vicky in Anne With An E, joins the cast as a “cool, fast-talking band nerd who attracts the attention of one of our cherished protagonists.” Miles Truitt will portray basketball player Patrick, Regina Ting Chen will play guidance counselor Ms. Kelly, and Grace Van Dien will play lead cheerleader Chrissie, who is hiding a “dark secret.”
Stranger Things season 4 episode count and titles
Stranger Things season 4 will be nine episodes long, much as season 2. “The Hellfire Club” is the title of the first episode, which was disclosed via a tweet accompanying the words “Looking for new members… are you in?”
Vecna’s Curse, The Monster and the Superhero, Dear Billy, The Nina Project, The Dive, The Massacre At Hawkins Lab, Papa, and The Piggyback are among the remaining episode names for the season.
me knowing nothing about HFC yet running for Club President pic.twitter.com/YYrfGV5ChE
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) November 6, 2020
The Hellfire Club may be a well-known X-Men organization, but it is also the name of Hawkins High’s official Dungeons & Dragons club. Eddie Munson, played by Joseph Quinn, will be the club’s president. Stranger Things season 4 will feature a lot more D&D role-playing.
Stranger Things season 4 setting
One of the most pressing worries we now have is when the next season will begin. Not simply the month, as previously said, but also the year.
Stranger Things season 4 would follow in the footsteps of the previous three seasons, which were set in November 1983, October 1984, and July 1985, respectively, therefore it would be following in the footsteps of the first three seasons. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if the show skipped 1986 altogether and went right to 1987.
Why? We have nothing against the year that gave us Top Gun and Aliens – both of which would be perfect for the kind of Easter egg treatment that Back to the Future got in season 3. Instead, this notion is based on the fact that the teen cast ages substantially quicker in real life than on screen.
Although Eleven, Mike, Dustin, and the others have only been alive for 20 months in Hawkins time, they have aged more than three years in the actual world. We won’t see them again for at least another 18 months. Increasing the in-show gap between seasons would be a decent method to solve the show’s creative team’s inability to generate episodes any faster, according to Shawn Levy.
“Probably once a week we say to ourselves we really should work faster, then within moments we realize, ‘Oh wait, we’re working at the speed we can work at.’ However much we resolve to work more quickly, it takes what it takes to do it right. Because we’re not really able to change the pace it’s a reason why we simply embrace the evolution of our actors – we don’t have an option.” Levy said ahead of season three.
Hopper’s return in Stranger Things season 4
Jim Hopper‘s whereabouts are the biggest mystery in Hawkins. Of course, we already know Eleven and the crew will return, but we don’t know when. It remains to be seen how they will handle his inevitable reappearance. Stranger Things Season 4 will have a “big, huge reveal about Hopper’s backstory,” according to David Harbour.
It has to do with one of the marked boxes Eleven discovers in Hopper’s cache in the middle of the second season. There are, as Harbour describes,
There are five boxes, one of which has Brenner’s stuff from Hawkins Lab, one of which says ‘Dad,’ and one of which says ‘Vietnam,’ and one says ‘New York.’So, there are these three things that we’ve established in the season that if we don’t pay off, it means that [the Duffer brothers are] bad writers. And the Duffer brothers are very good writers”
“I’m so excited about revealing this aspect of the character. It’s one of the things that I’ve known since the first frame of the first shot, and we haven’t expressed it yet. And finally, we’re gonna express it in a big way. It’s my favorite thing about him that you guys don’t know about him yet, but it has to do with these backstories of New York, Vietnam, and dad.”
Hopper’s reappearance was compared to Gandalf’s in Lord of the Rings, according to Harbour.
“I’ve had those discussions with [the Duffer brothers] from the very first season, we were always interested in that idea of the Gandalf resurrection – Gandalf the Grey who fights the Balrog and then becomes Gandalf the White. It’s the idea of the resurrection of the character. And mythologically, Hopper, in a sense, had to change.
I mean, you couldn’t go on the way he was going on. He has to resurrect in some way. So it was a great opportunity to do that. So we’ll see a very different guy going forwards. The same guy but in a different vein. It’s a very cool thing to be able to play.”
Stranger Things season 4 story
It’s been six months since the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends is separated for the first time – and navigating the complexities of high school hasn’t made things any easier.
In this most vulnerable time, a new and horrifying supernatural threat surfaces, presenting a gruesome mystery that, if solved, might finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down – From Stranger Things season 4’s official story
According to reports, Stranger Things season 4 will be shot in New Mexico, the home of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and a major conspiracy theory.
“This is the first time the show will be traveling beyond Atlanta,” Netflix’s Momita SenGupta said of the choice to shoot in New Mexico, adding that the show would be “bigger, bolder, and more intricate than ever. If I told you that, I would be disappearing into the Witness Protection Program,” SenGupta remarked.
Those of you who are familiar with UFO history may point to at least one important site of interest in New Mexico: Roswell, where extraterrestrial evidence was allegedly discovered in 1947. The event gained popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Is Bauman going to go exploring?
Stranger Things season 4 will likely focus on Eleven’s recovery from her telekinetic powers, as well as her adjustment to life after Hopper, living with the Byers in a new town in California.
Eleven is seen being transported on a stretcher, replete with an oxygen mask, and in-set shots, implying that things may not go easily for her. There are also police cars, what seems to be an armed soldier or guard, and a lot of rubble, so whatever is going on right now appears to be devastating.
“I think the biggest thing that’s going to happen in the new season is it’s going to open up a little bit, not necessarily in terms of scale, in terms of special effects, but open up in terms of allowing plotlines into areas outside of Hawkins. Ross Duffer said.
No one really knows what the Upside Down is, we just know what comes from it, like Demogorgons and like the Mind Flayer. But the Upside Down is an alternate dimension of our world. Our world is so big so there’s more than just Demodogs, and Demogorgons and Mind Flayers, so no one really knows.”
This is it — our last Video Store Friday! Every time we discussed a movie, we wrote it on a whiteboard. So here it is — the Video Store whiteboard in its full glory. That means that — yes — on this board, you will discover the DNA that makes up season 4! Enjoy, and stay safe! pic.twitter.com/T7hG1AR3s4
— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) April 24, 2020
“We don’t know a lot, but we do know a lot of the big broad strokes. At the end of season two, we knew about Billy [Hargrove]. We knew that the Russians were going to come in. We didn’t know the mall and stuff, but again, we know these big broad strokes. That’s sort of where we are in season 4. We have the big broad strokes. It’s just now about filling in those lines in the details. We’re pretty excited about where it’s potentially going to go. It’s going to feel very different than this season. But I think that’s the right thing to do and I think it’ll be exciting.” Ross Duffer said
