Prepare to be Upside Down no more!
After almost three years since last season, Stranger Things fans can rest assured that some clarity is on the horizon.
"We didn't know how big the season was going to get, and we didn't even realize until we were about halfway through, just in terms of how much story we wanted to tell this season," co-creator Ross Duffer said during Deadline's Contenders Television panel April 10. "Game of Thrones is one thing we've referenced, but also for us really what it's about is revelations, in that we really wanted to start giving the audience some answers."
Matt Duffer, Ross' brother and the show's co-creator, revealed that season four, which starts streaming May 27 on Netflix, will take viewers on an expanded journey.
"I don't think we have an episode clocking in under an hour. Even in season one there were episodes that were like 35 minutes. You kind of forget that," Matt argued. "This season, they're very long. I think it's almost double the length of any season. So that's one reason it's taken so long. It does have this sort of epic quality to it. It's a different feel, for sure."
The Duffers aren't flying by the seats of their pants, though. This plan has been in the works since the start.
"Back when we did season one, Netflix just kept going, ‘Can you explain all this mythology to us?'" Ross said. "So we wrote this giant 20-page document, which talked about everything in terms of what was going on and what exactly the Upside Down was. Each season we're peeling back the layers of that onion. This season, we really wanted to get into it and [reveal] some of those answers. To do that properly, we needed time, so it just became bigger and bigger."
It's not just the run times that are getting supersized, either: The Stranger Things universe is expanding to the Golden State.
"Joyce [Winona Ryder] and the Byers family left at the end of season three," Matt said. "They are in California—we've always wanted to have that like ‘E.T'.-esque suburb aesthetic, which we finally got to do this year in the desert."
We always support a side of nostalgia with our supernatural.
In addition to Ryder, the show promises the return of Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and more cast regulars.
The fourth season is being split into two parts. Volume 1 premieres on Netflix May 27, with Volume 2 arriving on July 1. It has been announced the the fifth season will be the show's last.
For more information on what to expect from the biggest season of Stranger Things yet, read on!
Stranger Things was renewed for season four in September 2019. And, thanks to a captivating teaser on Twitter, it was clear that the new season would venture outside the Indiana town. The caption read: "we're not in hawkins anymore."
All the way back in October 2019, the Stranger Things writers' Twitter account introduced Video Store Fridays, a list of movies which, according to the post, "relate in some way or another to season four."
The first films listed? The Peanut Butter Solution, The Fisher King, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, You've Got Mail and Ordinary People.
The writers kept this up for about six months, listing everything from Hellraiser 2 to Billy Madison and more.
In November 2019, it was teased that the first episode of season four is titled, "Chapter One: the Hellfire Club." What exactly is the Hellfire club? We have some theories, but we guess we'll have to wait and see.
For those who may need a refresher, it was unclear at the end of Stranger Things season three whether David Harbour's character Jim Hopper was still alive. By February 2020, Netflix released a teaser that showed a bald Hopper imprisoned in Russia.
On what fans can expect from season four, David Harbour told Deadline that "it's very epic and very big in a Stranger Things way." The leading man teased monsters, horror, scares and "great Indiana Jones-type action."
Additionally, fans can expect more of Hopper's backstory.
Just when we thought the Stranger Things cast couldn't get more impressive, Netflix announced eight additional cast members in November 2020, including Eduardo Franco, Jamie Campbell Bower, Sherman Augustus, Mason Dye, Joseph Quinn, Tom Wlaschiha, Nikola Djuricko and Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund.
In May 2021, a new teaser indicated that the origin story of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) will be explored more. At the start of the clip, a number of youngsters with closely cropped hair are seen playing with educational toys. Later, Dr. Martin Brenner, a.k.a. "Papa" (Matthew Modine), appears to be seen from the back as he walks in and says in a voiceover, "Good morning, children."
As Brenner continues to interact with the children, heavy breathing is heard as a camera pans to a door with an 11 on it. The clip comes to an end with the ominous doctor asking, "Eleven, are you listening?"
Four new faces joined the Stranger Things cast in June 2021, including Amybeth McNulty as Vickie, a cool, fast-talking band nerd; Myles Truitt as Patrick, a basketball star at Hawkins; Grace Van Dien as another popular student, named Chrissy; and Regina Ting Chen as Ms. Kelly, a popular guidance counselor who cares deeply for her students.
In August 2021, Netflix teased what's to come for the new season, including its return year. "See y'all in the upside down," Netflix noted in an Instagram caption. "Stranger Things returns in 2022."
It was later announced that the season would be broken up into two volumes, with the first premiering on May 27.
In a teaser from Sept. 2021, a new spooky locale was introduced: Creel House. The footage indicated that the seemingly haunted home has a dark connection to the Upside Down, and that Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Steve (Joe Keery), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and more are on the case.
On Stranger Things Day in 2021, Netflix revealed that Stranger Things season four will follow Eleven and the Byers family in their new town in California. Before fans of Eleven and Mike panic, it seems the couple will reunite over spring break. In typical Stranger Things fashion, the trip promises plenty of chaos.
Fans got a closer look at the haunted Creel House in one of the new posters.
Judging by this poster, maybe the west coast isn't the best coast after all.
Take a closer look at the lab where Eleven was created.
Season four takes viewers to Russia, meaning viewers may get answers about the origins of the Upside Down and other burning questions. This also might be where Hopper has been held after he sacrificed himself.
The Duffer Brothers confirmed season five will be Stranger Things' last in the above letter. "Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things," they wrote in part. "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 now hurtling toward our finale."
That being said, a billboard promoting season four also teased that "every ending has a beginning," so maybe there's a spinoff in the works.
Vecna, named after a Dungeons & Dragons character, is the ominous villain in season four. In the season's trailer, Vecna says "you've broken everything, your suffering is almost at an end."
The monster is made even more frightening due to the fact that Eleven is powerless to help.
"Part of the drive and tension of this season is that we have this big new evil emerge in Hawkins, and for the first time ever, Eleven is not there," co-creator Ross Duffer told Entertainment Weekly. "Not only is she separated by distance, but at the end of season three, she's lost her powers. So even when she learns about what has happened in Hawkins, she is unable to help them in the same way she has before."
Vecna also comes with his own army of deadly bats. Yes, deadly bats.
You've been warned.