These 'Stranger Things' Season 4 Theories Hint That Hopper Will Be Back
Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 3 below. 🚨
There's currently no release date for Stranger Things Season 4, but that hasn't stopped fans from wildly speculating about what might happen to all of their favorite characters.
From Jim Hopper's implied death to Joyce Byers moving away from Hawkins, Season 3's finale took viewers on a roller-coaster ride of emotions.
Theories abound about what could happen in Season 4, from Hopper communicating to Joyce from the Upside Down to the incorporation of the Chernobyl disaster.
Now that the world has finished binge-watching Season 3, it's time to start figuring out what will happen in Stranger Things 4. Let the conspiracy theories commence!
Murray Bauman is already on the case.
Thanks to an Easter egg found in Stranger Things 3, fans were able to hear an enlightening answering machine message that hints at Season 4. It just so happens that the phone number Hopper gave out in Season 3, episode 6, really works, and it's possible to call Murray Bauman. In the recording, the journalist-turned-conspiracy theorist says he has news for Joyce about Hopper, although it's unclear whether he's suggesting that the detective is alive or not.
But what the Easter egg does make clear is that Bauman is already on the case and isn't about to quit investigating the stranger things that have been transpiring in Hawkins and around the globe. Plus, Bauman's unexpected friendship with secretly sweet Russian Alexei was one of the highlights of Season 3, making him a fan favorite. If the working phone number suggests anything, it's that Bauman will be back—and play an important part in Stranger Things 4.
Hopper is in the Upside Down and will communicate with Joyce via Christmas lights.
Though Hopper was assumed dead in Stranger Things 3 after the destruction of the Russians' machine in Starcourt, it's possible he was transported somewhere else. Some assume Hopper might be "the American" prisoner referenced in the post-credits sequence's Soviet Union jail, but it seems possible that he actually ended up in the Upside Down instead.
Season 3 saw Hopper and Joyce thrown together, with the pair eventually agreeing to go on a date when all of the terrifying Mind Flayer drama was finally over. Unfortunately, Hopper disappears soon after, but if he was able to figure out a way to communicate, he would certainly make sure Joyce was the first to know. Plus, it would be so poetic if he contacted Joyce the very same way that her son Will reached out to her when he was trapped in the Upside Down in the first season.
With Joyce's iconic Christmas lights strung up on the wall once more, Hopper could communicate with the object of his affection and let her know that he's still alive. That's my dream, anyway.
And when coupled with the fact that the actor who plays Hopper, David Harbour, is apparently contracted to appear in Season 4, it seems all the more likely that Hopper will be back.
Hopper is in the Russian jail.
If Hopper isn't in the Upside Down, then he might be in the Soviet Union. And in a recent interview, Harbour all but confirmed that his character was trapped in the Russian jail that viewers saw in the Season 3 post-credits sequence. Speaking to Slash Film, Harbour strongly suggested that the post-credits scene alluded to his character's whereabouts. Here's what the reporter writes:
"I straight-up asked: Is that Hopper behind the door? According to Harbour, that's the most likely scenario. Throughout the season, the main Russian baddie refers to Hopper as 'the American,' and having another Russian refer to the mysterious prisoner in the same way was the big giveaway."
However, it's also possible that Harbour doesn't know what will take place in Season 4 just yet and is speculating much like the rest of us.
Hopper's disappearance is part of a bigger plan.
TVLine is speculating that Hopper's disappearance was planned and that he did so to keep his loved ones safe. After all, the Terminator-like Russian was squarely after Hopper in Season 3 and would stop at nothing to get to him. As such, TVLine wrote, "Hopper's vanishing act is part of some plan that he and Owens concocted on the sly so that they could ensure that the Russians' operation overseas is shut down without endangering El and Joyce."
The publication continued, "If the Russkies believed that Hop was a goner, they'd have no reason to go after his crush or his daughter to discourage his attempts to thwart them." While this makes some sense, Hopper's disappearance didn't look all that planned when Joyce stopped the Russians' machine. However, it's still possible.
Hopper's story arc mirrors Han Solo's—meaning he'll be back.
Speaking on the Behind the Scenes: Stranger Things 3 (via Entertainment Weekly), Matt Duffer revealed that Hopper's death was inspired by Han Solo's temporary disappearance in The Empire Strikes Back. Basically, Han Solo was frozen in carbonite in Empire only to be thawed out in Return of the Jedi—meaning that Hopper could very well be back.
Duffer explained, “We always talk about Empire Strikes Back, we always wanted to give him a darker ending, we always wanted to give him a Han Solo sacrifice moment." He continued, "It was emotional to shoot but it was really, really quick."
Men's Health explored the parallels between Stranger Things and Star Wars in more depth, and all signs seemed to point towards Hopper's return—including the fact that Return of the Jedi is Steve Harrington's favorite Star Wars movie.
Dr. Brenner is in the Russian jail.
What if "the American" is actually another character presumed to be dead? Could the identity of that American prisoner actually be Dr. Brenner, Eleven's scientist "father" who was presumed dead at the end of Season 1?
While it looked as though Brenner was killed by a Demogorgon at the end of the first season, Esquire notes that a former orderly at Hawkins National Laboratory called Ray Carroll told Eleven in Season 2 that Brenner was still alive.
Both hints seem to suggest that Matthew Modine's Brenner will be back in Season 4, even if he's not "the American" in question.
Everyone will leave Hawkins.
In a 2017 interview with the showrunners, Ross and Matt Duffer, Ross told Vulture, "We're thinking it will be a four-season thing and then out." As for whether or not the show could continue beyond Season 4, Matt said, "I don't know if we can justify something bad happening to them once a year," with Ross adding, "They're going to have to get the fuck out of this town!"
It's possible that the Duffer brothers are planning on having everyone's favorite characters leave Hawkins, Indiana, in Stranger Things 4. After all, Joyce left town at the end of Season 3 with her kids and Eleven in tow.
The Duffer brothers seemed to confirm this in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Matt explained, "I think the biggest thing that's going to happen 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." Which could mean more time in Russia, or elsewhere in the United States (such as when Eleven traveled to Chicago in Season 2).
Eleven will get her powers back.
If anything's a given, it's that Eleven will save the world in Season 4. At the end of Season 3, Eleven was left powerless and couldn't even move a small object with her mind. After battling the Mind Flayer once more, it seemed that she'd exhausted all of her powers, and her energy was zapped.
It seems highly likely that Season 4 will follow Eleven as she rediscovers her powers, or struggles to live without them. Either way, her journey will presumably remain at the show's core.
The Season 4 timeline will coincide with the Chernobyl disaster.
In July, BuzzFeed reported on a seriously plausible theory via one insightful Redditor. Gamer_Nation posted the following on Reddit:
"Season 1: Winter 1983 (Christmas) Season 2: Fall 1984 (Halloween) Season 3: Summer 1985 (Independence Day) Season 4: should be Spring 1986 (Easter and probably goes into spring break)
Post credit scene was in Russia. Chernobyl happened in Spring 1986. How Doctor Owens said that they use something familiar to convince the public to not look any further into the strange happenings. So did a nuclear reactor explode or did el have the greatest battle of her life?"
Basically, if the authorities are trying to conceal any activity related to the Upside Down, and Eleven's powers, it could mean that, in the world of Stranger Things, Chernobyl never really happened. Perhaps the nuclear disaster will be used as a cover-up for a big showdown that takes place in Russia in Season 4.
Sadly, we're all just going to have to wait for Netflix to give us a release date for Stranger Things 4 so we can find out whether any of these theories is true. The waiting game has truly begun.
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