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Stranger Things 4: What We Know So Far

millie brown as eleven in netflix's stranger things

Last week saw the reveal of a plethora of information dropped regarding the much anticipated Stranger Things 4. Here we will roundup everything that has been revealed surrounding the upcoming chapter in the sci-fi/horror saga, from release dates to brand new posters. So please, follow us into the upside down to find out more about Season 4 of the hit Netflix show.


Stranger Things 4 Release Date

stranger things, season 4 teaser, will and eleven

We have been waiting for a release date for Stranger Things 4 for some time and now we have not one, but two release dates! That is right, Stranger Things 4 will be dropping in two parts. Part One of Season 4 will release on Netflix on the 27th of May 2022 and Part Two will follow just six weeks after that on the 1st of July 2022.

Now I know what you are thinking; when a season of a popular TV series is split into two parts, it is usually the final season of said show. Don’t worry, Stranger Things 4 is only the penultimate season of the show, with Season 5 being the actual final season of the series. That said, Stranger Things 4 will be the beginning of the end for the story being told and the events of the upcoming season will lay the groundwork for the epic finale that will be Season 5.

In an open letter to the show’s fans, Stranger Things creators, The Duffer Brothers said;

“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 rewarding one. Everyone involved is incredibly proud of the results, and we can’t wait to share it with you. Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things. 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 towards our finale. There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things. But first, we hope you that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mum, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down.”

– The Duffer Brothers

Shawn Levy, the show’s producer, recognised the fact that fans have been waiting a long time for the follow up to Stranger Things 3, as it has been three years since the last season dropped. However, he did promise fans that this new season, “will be worth the wait.”

At the conclusion of Stranger Things 3, we saw Eleven, Mike and the rest of the gang go their separate ways. As the kids were just about to enter their first year of high school, audiences were left not knowing when or if we would see them reunited. With Eleven and Will moving from Hawkins to California and Hopper presumed dead, the show’s main protagonists are scattered across multiple parts of the country for the first time.

This means that Stranger Things 4 will indeed take place in a variety of locations, rather than being confined to just Hawkins. Four locations that we know we will see in the new season were revealed via four new posters, which can be seen below. The locations depicted on the posters are; The Lab, The Creel House, California and Russia, which is where Hopper is currently being held.


Stranger Things 4 Cast Members

As you may have expected, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Maya Hawke and Winona Ryder will all be reprising their roles as Eleven, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Max, Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, Robin and Joyce respectively.

We have also received confirmation that David Harbour will be making his return as Hopper. Although the previous season concluded with his supposed death, a subsequent trailer for the new season showed Hopper alive and well somewhere presumably in Russia.

In an interview with Total Film, Harbour spoke about the return of his character saying that he, “had to change or resurrect in some way, 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.”

At the time of writing, it has not yet been made clear exactly how Hopper survived the Season 3 finale. In terms of his role in Stranger Things 4, Harbour has revealed that the new season will unveil some more details regarding the character’s backstory and that that backstory will involve the boxes that Eleven found in Hopper’s attic back in Season 2 of the show. At the Liverpool Comic-Con, Harbour stated;

“In season four we will give you a big, huge reveal about Hopper’s backstory, which we haven’t really told you about… we’re gonna express it in a big way. It’s my favourite 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.”

– David Harbour
hopper

Harbour also did an interview with Entertainment Weekly in October of 2021, where he hinted towards what fans can expect to see in Stranger Things 4, referencing the more confusing aspects of shows like Lost;

“I think I have the best storyline… What we’re trying to do, as we elaborate this thing, [is] to draw it back and make sure that we don’t have an endgame like some of us thought about, that show Lost… ‘What happened to the polar bear?!’ We’re trying to draw in, so the [elements of the storyline] start to come to a head and become a complete piece. Season 4 lays a lot of pipe for that.”

The official Stranger Things Twitter account announced some new cast members who will be joining the hit series for the new season back in July of last year. Stars of the CW’s Black Lightning and Netflix’s Anne with an E are just some of the new faces appearing in Stranger Things 4.

As stated in the tweet linked above, Amybeth McNulty will play Vickie in the new season. Vickie is described as “a cool, fast-talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our beloved heroes.” McNulty spoke to The Times regarding her upcoming role and said;

“I was one of the first people in my friend group to watch the first season of Stranger Things. When I got cast, it came out of the blue. I screamed, cried and got very excited.”

– Amybeth McNulty

The new character of Patrick will be played by Myles Truitt. Patrick is a basketball player whose life will end up, “spiralling out of control due to the shocking events that are about to unfold.”

Another new cast member will be Chrissy, a Hawkins’ High lead cheerleader who, “beneath a seemingly perfect surface hides a dark secret.” Grace Van Dien from Lady Driver will play Chrissy.

Ms Kelly will be a guidance counsellor to the children in the new season and will be played by Regina Ting Chen from Queen of the South.

Prior to these more recent casting announcements being made, we learned about another slew of new cast members who will be appearing in the new season way back in November of 2020.

These include the man who originally brought Freddy Kruger to life back in 1984; Robert Englund. Englund will portray Victor Creel in Season 4, described as, “a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital.”

Game of Thrones alumni, Tom Wlaschiha will play Dmitri, described as a “smart and charming Russian prison guard.” Mason Dye of Teenwolf is set to play Jason Carver, “a handsome, rich athlete dating the most popular girl in school.”

Jamie Campbell Bower from the Twilight movies and Harry Potter will portray Peter Ballard, who is described as, “a caring man who works as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital.” Eduardo Franco from 2019’s Booksmart will play Argyle, who is, “a fun-loving stoner, pizza delivery boy and Jonathan’s new best friend”.

Sherman Augustus will play Lt Colonel Sullivan, “a no-nonsense man who believes he knows how to stop the evil in Hawkins.” Nikola Djuricko will portray Yuri, described as, “an unpredictable Russian smuggler who loves bad jokes, cold hard cash, and crunchy style peanut butter.” And Joseph Quinn will play the role of Eddie Munson, who is, “the head of the Hawkins High official D&D Club, The Hellfire Club”.

Stranger Things 4

Joel Stoffer, (who is probably best known for Agents of SHIELD, but has appeared in many sci-fi projects over the years,) is joining the cast in an as-of-yet undisclosed role. He spoke to Comicbook.com in July of 2020 regarding the role, saying that;

“I’ve got a role that we haven’t shot yet on Stranger Things. I don’t expect it to become anything like long term… I was sent the pages of my scene and I didn’t know any of the actors or I didn’t recognise any names in my scene.”

– Joel Stoffer

Stranger Things 4 Plot Details

Stranger Things 4

“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.”

– Stranger Things 4 Official Plot Synopsis

According to this part of the official plot synopsis, although the previous season first aired three years ago, the events of Stranger Things 4 will take place six short months after the Battle of Starcourt. This means that the events of those last few episodes of Season 3 will still be fresh in the mind of our heroes.

“It’s not all good news for our ‘American’; he is imprisoned far from home in the snowy wasteland of Kamchatka, where he will face dangers both human… and other. Meanwhile, back in the States, a new horror is beginning to surface, something long-buried, something that connects everything…”

– Stranger Things 4 Official Plot Synopsis

The, ‘American,’ referred to in this part of the synopsis obviously pertains to Hopper. Season three ended in an emotional scene. Following Hopper’s presumed death, we saw Joyce, Will and Jonathan packing up their belongings and leaving their home in Hawkins to head to California along with Eleven.

Whilst Hopper is apparently stranded a long way from home, at least we know that he is alive. Whenever Eleven and Joyce inevitably find out that he is still among the living, emotions will undoubtedly run high. Though it will likely be a while before he is reunited with either of them.

Natalia Dyer, who plays Nancy in the show, spoke to The Independent regarding the script and scale of the upcoming season;

“Honestly, the scripts are great. Every time we end a season, we all think, ‘Where is this going to go? Where can this possibly go?’ Then we get the scripts for the next season and we’re like, ‘Oh my god, wow, like, wow!’ It’s going to be really big. It’s going to be big!”

– Natalie Dyer

Matt and Ross Duffer did an interview recently with Entertainment Weekly, where they commented on the fact that the Stranger Things story-line is going to move outwith Hawkins for the first time since the show began.

“The new season is 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.”

– The Duffer Brothers

This would tie in with the recently released posters and the teaser that dropped for Season 4 back in September 2019 which stated; “We’re not in Hawkins any more…”

In late 2020, it was confirmed by the Stranger Things creative team that the title of Season 4’s first episode will be, ‘The Hellfire Club.’ However, following the deluge of information released at the end of last week, the episode titles for the rest of the first part of Season 4 have also been revealed;

  • • ‘The Hellfire Club’
  • • ‘Vecna’s Curse’
  • • ‘The Monster and the Superhero’
  • • ‘Dear Billy’
  • • ‘The Tina Project’
  • • ‘The Dive’
  • • ‘The Massacre at Hawkins Lab’
  • • ‘Papa’
  • • ‘The Piggyback’

A few of these titles definitely seem somewhat familiar. In the X-Men comic books, Emma Frost led a group of super-villains known as, ‘The Hellfire Club.’ The antagonist-turned-saviour of the previous season was Max’s older brother, Billy. This is likely who, ‘Dear Billy,’ is referring to.

‘Papa,’ is another of the episode titles that stands out. Way back in season 1, “Papa,” was how Eleven would refer to her evil surrogate father, Dr Martin Bremer, played by Matthew Modine. However, he was killed by the Demogorgon at the end of that first season, therefore it could be referring to Eleven’s new surrogate father figure; Hopper.

Although these episode titles only cover the first part of two that will make up Season 4 of Stranger Things, we know that this series will mark the beginning of the end for this story. The Duffers told Deadline in an interview, that they actually already know how they are going to end the sci-fi/horror saga. In fact, they have been set on their ending idea for a long time.

“We like to look at each season as kind of its own complete story. We do have a pretty large mythology […] and season by season, we’re turning the page and revealing a little bit more and more. So we do have a general sense of where we’re going. We’ve known the ending of the show for quite a while.”

– Matt Duffer

Ross Duffer told CNN that they don’t only know how they are going to end the series, but they know when they will start wrapping things up. This is likely what Season 5 will be for; tying up all the loose threads pertaining to the series’ band of multiple protagonists.

“We know what the end is, and we know when it is. [The pandemic] has given us time to look ahead, figure out what is best for the show. Starting to fill that out gave us a better idea of how long we need to tell that story.”

– Ross Duffer

Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy spoke to Collidergiving us some more information regarding the show’s ending. That said, it was a little vague as he is clearly treading carefully so as not to give away any major plot points.

“The end is in sight. There is a plan and that too will be shared not quite as soon as a sense of when season four is coming out, but soon enough. I can say this. No-one’s making it up as we go along and there is an endgame, if you will.”

– Shawn Levy

Although we now know that the fifth of Stranger Things will give us the narrative conclusion to the story that began in Season 1, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there isn’t scope to tell more stories within this universe in the future. The Duffer’s open letter announcing Season 4 actually hinted towards this.

“There are still many exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes. But first we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town named Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down.”

– The Duffer Brothers

What did you make of all of the information released last week regarding Stranger Things 4? Are you excited for the new season to drop? Are you upset that Season 5 will be the last? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Daniel Boyd

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Daniel is a 26-year-old writer from Glasgow. He loves sci-fi and hates fantasy. He also hates referring to himself in the third person and thinks that bios are dumb.

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