'Stranger Things' Season Four Is Leaning Into Horror

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We're getting closer and closer to getting to experience Stranger Things's fourth season. That's the good news. The bad news is that the release of it is still a few months away—but the good news of that bad news is that you have plenty of time to rewatch and remember what happened all those years ago. (Seriously, the last season debuted nearly two years ago!) Pandemic-induced production woes have left Netflix's expectant audience in limbo, but there may finally be a light at the end of the tunnel. New photos and new trailers offer compelling teases about what's coming down the pike, while a confirmed release date means that the end to all this waiting is finally in sight.

Read on for the full rundown on what to expect from Season Four.

What Will Stranger Things Season Four Be About?

At last, Netflix has released an official synopsis: “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 are 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.”

But what, exactly, does that mean? New first look photos don't reveal much in the way of plot, but they do show the different permutations in which our favorite characters will be scattered to the winds this season. Back in February, Netflix released location posters teasing the four settings of the new season: Russia, the Creel House (more on that below), the lab, and California. Despite their move to California, these photos show Eleven and the Byers clan palling around with familiar faces in a snowy terrain, suggesting that they've not gone west for good.


The photos come on the heels of some tantalizing, if brief, video footage. Following a teaser that aired during the Tokyo Olympics, viewers didn't have much to go off of. The Season Four teaser was more of a flashback to Seasons One through Three, while the teaser that dropped during Netflix's Tudum event last September gave hardcore fans a lot more to chew on. The new season will introduce "Creel House," which offers a whole new setting for the ragtag gang.

While the finer details of the season are still firmly under wraps, the teaser shows a mid-century family moving into the house (presumably the Creel House) as "Dream a Little Dream of Me" plays in the background. Sounds nice, right? Tell that to the dead rabbit and the (seemingly) dead children in the trailer. The one big carryover from past teasers is that grandfather clock that seems to be a key between the mysteries of back-when and the present, when the kids find the house. Also, shoutout to Dustin's Sherlock Holmes impression.

The previous Season Four teasers, released last year, are—you guessed it—extremely cryptic. The preview shows a handful of kids playing around at a secret facility, which we assume is where Eleven was raised and experimented on. Then, we hear the voice of Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) greeting the children, whom they call "Papa." We see him walk down the hallway of the lab. The camera cuts to a separate cell, with "11" on the front. His voiceover asks: "Eleven, are you listening?" Eleven's eyes open... and that's all we get, folks. While there's not much in this, it's interesting that Stranger Things is teasing Brenner, who appeared to die at the end of Season One. Is he back from the dead somehow? Is this just a flashback?

These sneak peeks mark some of our first looks at the new Stranger Things season since March of 2020, when Netflix dropped a brooding teaser revealing that Detective Hopper, who was presumed dead at the end of Season Three, is in fact the mysterious American prisoner held captive by Russian operatives. Netflix may have gotten the hint that Hopper's labors on a Russian chain gang weren't the cheeriest sneak peek, so they've gone ahead and revealed other pieces of the Season Four puzzle with a behind-the-scenes look at the inaugural table read—one that reveals a lot about who's coming back for another trip to the Upside Down.

Let's go down the list: returning characters include Hopper (David Harbour), Joyce (Winona Ryder), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Robin (Maya Hawke), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono), and Max (Sadie Sink). At the end of the grainy video, the cast assembles for a supersized table read, which suggests that production is moving along, even if we don't have an official release date just yet.

The main problem with Stranger Things 3 was that most of the episodes felt too similar to the first two seasons. But despite the structural and narrative likenesses, that outing did eventually end in a more interesting place than Season One or Two found. By the time the final episode concluded, Hopper was allegedly dead, Eleven had lost her powers, and somehow the Russians had a mysterious American prisoner and a Demogorgon. The preview shows a line of rugged workers laboring on who knows what, and turns out one of them is Hopper, who went full 2017 Chris Pine and buzzed his hair off. So, yes—it looks like Stranger Things 4 is going full Rocky IV and setting part of its story in Russia.

To begin Season Four with the Byers family and Eleven living outside of Hawkins, with Eleven still missing her powers, and Hopper in Russia makes for a much more interesting premise than the sameness we saw in Season Three. But with the kids aging, the show will have to take on a different tone. “When we pitched it to Netflix all those years ago, we pitched it as the kids are... The Goonies in E.T.,” Ross Duffer said. “That’s their storyline. And the adults are in Jaws and Close Encounters and then the teens are in Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween. But, this year, we don’t have the kids. We can’t do The Goonies anymore. And so, suddenly, we’re leaning much harder into that horror movie territory that we love. It was fun to make that change.”

With the "American" serving as one of the big cliffhangers—we now know this is Hopper, of course—a possible outline for a fourth season begins to take shape. Eleven must figure out how to get her powers back to stop whatever meddling the Russians are still doing with the Upside Down. The gang must reunite to save Hopper from whatever fate befell him at the hands of the Russians. And, possibly, they may even team up with Dr. Brenner, who has the answer to it all.

Before the big teaser about Hopper, the cast had been cagey about a Season Four. Harbour told ET that he hoped Hopper somehow returns in another season, but he had no idea what was going on.

"I know as much as you. I've seen the final episode—it’s extraordinary, it’s magnificent. What Hopper does and what happens to him, he acts like the person he is meant to be. And then there is this mystery at the end," he said. 'I don't really know what’s going to happen, but if you find out from the Duffer Brothers, let me know."

While promoting Black Widow, Harbour teased that Season Four will reveal "a very big secret" that he's been keeping under wraps for five years. “There’s one thing in it that plays very big in this season that I’ve known since the first frame of the first season,” Harbour revealed. “Me and the Duffers would sit around and speculate, ‘Oh, wouldn’t this be cool?’ the minute we started shooting. We never thought we'd even get a second season, and then we get to do it in this season. It's so satisfying to have had an idea five years prior, and to go like, 'Oh, this is a season when we're gonna let out this secret that we were using just as a subtle thing to inform something.' We're gonna lay it out finally, and it's really cool."

The big reveal might have something to do with a hidden chapter of Hopper's backstory, which the show touched on in Season Two, when we glimpsed boxes in Hopper's attic labeled "Dad," "New York," and "Vietnam."

"There's some fun stuff that we're doing this season, but it's also the heaviest dramatic stuff I've ever had to do," Harbour said. "We get to see a lot of Hopper at his most vulnerable, we're gonna reveal a lot of backstory points that we've only hinted at in boxes in his attic. We're gonna see a lot of these different threads, and also, we get to see a rebirth of him."

As for the show's quality, Harbour teased a season that promises to top everything that came before it.

"Season Four is really my favorite season," Harbour said. "I just love it. The scripts always get better and these guys, they started out, and Season One is so tight and good and intimate in a certain way, it’s so good. And these guys go in different directions, of which the fans have multiple takes on, but I will say, the writing continues to be of its particular, specific genre, whatever they’re doing each season is just extraordinary. And this, again, we top it. Like I feel it’s a big, beautiful season. I can’t wait for people to see it.”

Will Season Four Gain New Cast Members?

You bet. Netflix has announced a passel of new cast members, including Myles Truitt (Black Lightning), who will join the cast as Patrick, a Hawkins basketball player whose life will end up "spiraling out of control" following some "shocking events." Amybeth McNulty (Anne With An E) has signed on as Vickie, "a cool, fast-talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our beloved heroes." Regina Ting Chen (Queen of the South) joins as guidance counselor Ms. Kelly, while Grace Van Dien (Lady Driver) will play Chrissy, a popular cheerleader about whom Netflix writes, "beneath the seemingly perfect surface lies a dark secret."

Back in November, Netflix shared an even larger cast list on Instagram, which rounds out the characters we can expect to meet in Hopper's neck of the woods:

When Will Season Four of Stranger Things Come Out?

Season Four will be split into two parts: Volume 1 arrives on May 27, and Volume 2 arrives on July 4. Watch this space for updates as we continue to learn more.

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