Everything to Know About Stranger Things Season 4

Netflix

Netflix's Stranger Things is coming back for season 4 soon, and it's going to be "supersized."

Unlike previous seasons, this one will be split into two parts, with volume 1 premiering on May 27 and volume 2 premiering on July 1.

In Netflix's official announcement, they also announced that Stranger Things will return for season 5, which will mark the conclusion of the series.

"Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things," the show's creators Matt and Ross Duffer wrote in a statement. "At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but – as you'll soon see for yourselves – we are no hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last."

The recent posters shared also mark this transition with the quote, "Every ending has a beginning."

As we anxiously wait for the show to return, here's everything we know about season 4.

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Who from the Stranger Things cast is returning?

Yes, Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is back for season 4 after his fate was left dangling at the end of the season 3 finale, when he seemingly perished to save the town of Hawkins.

Hopper's return was confirmed in February 2020 when Netflix dropped a teaser titled, "From Russia with love…" In the short clip, a snowy scene showed workers constructing a railway line — and one of them was revealed to be a bald Hopper.

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Also returning for season 4 is Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair) and Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler).

Dacre Montgomery will not be reprising his role as Billy Hargrove, who sacrificed himself in the season 3 finale to save Eleven from the Mind Flayer.

Who is joining the Stranger Things cast?

Season 4 will welcome a slew of new characters, including three series regulars: Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco and Joseph Quinn.

Bower plays Peter Ballard, "a caring man who works as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital," Franco plays Argyle, "a fun-loving stoner who proudly delivers delicious pizza pies for Surfer Boy Pizza" in Hawkins, and Quinn plays Eddie Munson, who runs Hawkins High's official Dungeons and Dragons club.

Ian West/PA Images via Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco and Joseph Quinn

Joining in recurring roles: Sherman Augustus as Lt. Colonel Sullivan, Mason Dye as Hawkins High popular boy Jason Carver and Robert Englund as Victor Creel, "a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s."

Plus, two new Russian characters are joining the cast: Nikola Djuricko is playing Yuri, a Russian smuggler, and Tom Wlaschiha plays a Russian prison guard who befriends Hopper.

On June 9, 2021, Netflix announced four additional recurring cast members for the upcoming season: Amybeth McNulty, Grace Van Dien, Regina Ting Chen and Myles Truitt.

George Pimentel/Getty;Michael Tullberg/Getty; Regina Ting Chen/ instagram; Marcus Ingram/Getty

McNulty will play Vickie, a cool, fast-talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our beloved heroes, according to the streaming service, while Queen Sugar star Truitt is joining as Patrick, a Hawkins basketball star who has friends, talent and a good life until shocking events send his life spiraling out of control.

Chen will play a guidance counselor, Ms. Kelly, who cares deeply for her students, especially those struggling the most, and Van Dien is taking on the role of Chrissy, Hawkins High's lead cheerleader and the most popular girl in school who has a dark secret.

What will Stranger Things season 4 be about?

Per the official logline from Netflix, the new season will see our favorite group of friends separated for the first time as they deal with the aftermath of the Battle of Starcourt. As they adjust to high school, "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."

In an interview with PEOPLE, Harbour teased that in the new season, audiences will "see a lot of your favorite characters doing the thing that you love them for ... but you'll also see them twist it and turn it into other colors and other flavors."

Harbour also said that fans will "get to see an entirely other color" of Hopper in season 4. "This season is my favorite because he really is going to show you some new colors and what he's really made up of," he said.

Netflix David Harbour in Stranger Things

The first teaser, which dropped in May 2021, also teased what's to come when the gang returns.

Set in the past, in what appears to be the Hawkins National Laboratory, the teaser opens with a group of children playing together in a room.

Midway through the clip, Matthew Modine's Dr. Martin Brenner, also known as "Papa" in the series, is seen walking into the room to greet the kids. "Today, I have something very special planned for you," he tells the group as the camera pans down the hall to a room with the number 11 on it while a voiceover plays of someone taking deep breaths.

As the background music becomes more and more intense, the teaser ends with Modine's character saying, "Eleven, are you listening?" — before it cuts a shot of Eleven opening her eyes.

Matarazzo also dished on season 4 during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

"You told me that this season, that you know of, that you've shot so far, might be the scariest one," Fallon said to the actor.

"Oh, yeah," Matarazzo confirmed. "That's the one thing I've noticed. I was reading it and was like 'Whoa, they're going for it this year that's pretty cool.'"

Where can you watch the Stranger Things season 4 trailer?

On April 12, Netflix shared the official trailer for the new season, which sees the gang navigating their first year of high school, while Max finds herself in some very supernatural situations.

When does Stranger Things season 4 premiere?

In an official statement to Netflix, the Duffer brothers revealed that season 4 will be split into two parts, due to the high volume of content they created during filming.

"With nine scripts, over eight-hundred pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a runtime nearly twice the length of any previous season, Stranger Things 4 was the most challenging season yet, but also the most regarding one," they said. "Everyone involved is incredibly proud of the results, and we can't wait to share it with you."

Stranger Things season 4, volume 1 premieres on May 27 and volume 2 premieres July 1. The episode count for each volume is still unclear.

In October 2020, Netflix confirmed that the show had resumed production after filming was delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The show was a month into production on the upcoming season when the pandemic hit the U.S. in March 2020, with the scripts polished and ready to go, PEOPLE previously reported.

Prior to pausing production, the cast got together in Atlanta for their first table read.

Netflix Stranger Things season 3

Will there be another season of Stranger Things?

Stranger Things fans can rejoice because the series will continue past season 4.

The Duffer brothers confirmed that the show has already been renewed for season 5, which will "be the conclusion of the series and will complete the story arc they intended for the series," per the official press release from Netflix.

That being said, it does seem like there could be some potential Stranger Things spinoffs in the works, as the Duffer brothers emphasized, "There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes."