WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT STRANGER THINGS SEASON 4
Can you believe it’s been almost one year since Stranger Things 3? We are eagerly waiting for more action from our favorite bunch of kids, but there’s so much uncertainty. When will we get Stranger Things 4? What will happen in the new season? Have the Duffer Brothers said anything of late? Has anyone accidentally leaked information? We will answer these and many more questions about Stranger Things 4.
First things, first!
Will Stranger Things 4 actually happen?
There is so much uncertainty when it comes to the entertainment industry, especially with the pandemic still looming over us. Productions have been postponed to later dates, and others have been canceled. Well, even though we don’t know when the fourth season will hit our screens, we know for sure that it will happen! In an interview with Entertainment Weekly that occurred shortly after the third season’s release, series’ creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed the series’ creative team had already met on several occasions to discuss the show’s future. Then on September 30, 2019, Netflix announced it had signed the Duffer Brothers for a new multi-year television and film deal that was reportedly worth nine figures. Matt Duffer indicated one of the plot’s broad stroke” is the main center of action being moved out of Hawkins, Indiana, for the majority of the season, a series first. He also indicated the several loose ends left by the ending of season three, such as Hopper’s perceived death and Eleven being adopted by Will’s mother and relocating with her new family out of state, will all be explored sometime during the fourth season. In celebration of Stranger Things Day last year, the official social media accounts of the show’s writing room revealed the title of the fourth season’s first episode (“Chapter One: The Hellfire Club”) and that it was written by the Duffer Brothers. They also announced on their Twitter page that season 4 will consist of nine episodes.
Filming
Filming for the fourth season began in February 2020 in Vilnius, Lithuania, at the recently decommissioned Lukiškės Prison. After production wrapped in Lithuania, filming was expected to resume in the United States in and around the Atlanta metro area, the primary production location of previous seasons. A significant portion of filming also occurred at Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico, which Netflix acquired in 2018. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all Netflix productions, including Stranger Things, were shut down on March 16, 2020. In late May, stunt boss Hira Koda told ComicBook.com that the Stranger Things team had managed to film two episodes of season four before the coronavirus pandemic shut down production. Gaten also echoed those words in an interview with Galaxycon Live. He said that they were in the middle of filming when they were told to take a two-week break, which eventually became a three months break. He added that he’s itching to get back to work, as once lockdown restrictions end, the series will still require another seven or eight months.
Cast
By November 1, 2019, casting had begun to add four new male characters to the fourth season’s line-up, with three of the roles being teenagers and one of them being an adult. The teenaged roles were characterized as ranging “from a metalhead to an entitled jock to a character that sounds an awful lot like the twin of Fast Times at Ridgemont High stoner Jeff Spicoli,” while the adult character was tied to the Russian storyline introduced during the third season. It was confirmed by the show’s writers’ room that Maya Hawke’s character Robin would be returning for the fourth season. In a teaser released in February 2020, Netflix confirmed David Harbour would return as Jim Hopper and that Tom Wlaschiha had been cast as a Russian malefactor. Priah Ferguson’s promotion to series regular for the fourth season was also confirmed in February 2020, and in March, Brett Gelman’s promotion to series regular was also confirmed. In June 2020, most of the main cast was listed to be returning, including the five main kids, but one name notably missing a 2021 day is Dacre Montgomery who played Billy. His character died in season 3 so it’s not overly surprising. Some audition tapes also surfaced online with actors trying to become so-called “members of the hellfire club” but the tapes were not property of Netflix.
Storyline
The biggest question fans have is what will happen in Stranger Things 4?! Well, for starters, to accommodate the show’s quickly-ageing young cast, could Stranger Things four be set several years after season three. Someone like Caleb McLaughlin, who turns 19 in 2020, can only play a 15-year-old for so long! Also, based on the new trailer featuring Jim Hopper as the American prisoner, it looks like quite a lot of time has passed, given his slimmer and gaunt appearance. One challenge is that if the show goes beyond 1986, they will have to find a way to address the career of a young Winona Ryder. Winona’s debut film role was in 1986’s Lucas. She then appeared alongside Rob Lowe in Square Dance in 1987. If the show ever makes it to 1988, they’re surely gonna have to reference how much a young Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice and Veronica Sawyer from Heathers look like Joyce Byers. Well, a new casting call has fans speculating whether or not the season will take place in 1987. The call, which asks for vintage vehicles, specifies that the car years should be 1987 and older models only.
A back story
We know that in Stranger Things 4 a character’s back story will be explored and the best candidate for this storyline is Hopper. David Harbour promised fans at Liverpool Comic Con a big, huge reveal about his character’s backstory in the upcoming series. He added that it’s his favourite thing about Hopper that fans are yet to find out about him, but it’s related to the three boxes found by Eleven in Hopper’s attic which are labelled ‘Dad’, ‘Vietnam’ and ‘New York’. We don’t know much about newcomer Robin’s background, so she could also be a good bet. Or perhaps we’ll find out how former journalist turned private investigator Murray Bauman became the bunker-living, vodka-drinking and Russian-speaking sleuth he is today.
Darker times ahead
Apparently the upcoming series is set to be the scariest so far according to Keery, who plays Steve Harrington. The actor told Total Film, “I think that this year and I know I say this every single year but this is definitely going to be a lot scarier than prior years, because last year was pretty dark.” This was echoed by Stranger Things’ stunt boss Hiro Koda in late May, who told ComicBook.com that season four will be darker.
Is Jim Hopper really alive?
Yes, we have seen him in the trailer, but how sure are we that the man we saw is the real Jim Hopper? How did he survive the explosion? Fans are convinced that when Hopper was trapped between the gate to the upside down and a beam of light, he managed to escape before Joyce destroyed the portal. This is because when the camera cut from Joyce to the portal exploding, Hopper was not where he had been in the short before. He could also have travelled through the portal when the explosion happened and became trapped in the Upside Down. He was then found by the Russian team, who had built another portal to the Upside Down to find another Mind Flayer, and subsequently imprisoned. But, there is another crazy possibility! We believe that the Hopper seen in season four’s teaser trailer being forced into manual labour in Russia is not the real Hopper, but actually a clone of the detective. This theory is based on Billy Hargrove’s encounter with a clone of himself in the Upside Down during season three, when the Mind Flayer had planted part of itself inside him and Billy became under its control. Remember, a similar thing happened to Will Byers in season 2 so could it be possible that the Hopper in Russia is actually a clone being controlled by the Mind Flayer. Anyone who thought the Mind flayer was destroyed is sadly mistaken.
The clone storyline is also supported by Stranger Things’ tendency to reference 80s films. As we know, The Thing has already been referenced in Stranger Things before. A poster can be spotted at Mike’s basement and Lucas mentioned it when explaining why he liked New Coke. Did you notice how the season 4 teaser had big The Thing vibes: set in a snowy, isolated place, where a dangerous and mysterious creature is being kept in this case, the Demogorgon? There is even a similarity between the strange noise heard at the end of the teaser and the sound the creature from The Thing made. Stranger Things could be following the steps of The Thing in season 4 and bring clones to the mix, with Hopper being the chosen one to introduce this concept in the series.
Fans are also convinced that Joyce Byers and Murray Bauman will be heading to Russia in season four to rescue Hopper. After Ryder and Bauman were reportedly spotted filming in Lithuania, we are convinced that the pair, who spent the majority of season three with Hopper, will be executing a rescue mission during season four. Fans are also guessing that Murray will be the next character to die this season, after the death of Alexei, a Russian technician arrested by Hopper who becomes friends with Murray.
More Demogorgons
At the end of season 3, we all saw that the Russians had captured a Demogorgon. How they came to capture a Demogorgon is unclear but perhaps they were able to find one of the spawns similar to Dustin’s pet D’Artagan in season 2. This would give pause to reason that the Demodogs are in fact the juvenile or puppy stage of the Demogorgon. So if the Russians raised this particular Demogorgon from birth/spawn, then maybe they were able to tame the monster. As it stands, we don’t even know how many monsters we are dealing it. There’s probably an army of Demogorgons waiting for us in season 4.
We also know that Stranger Things 4 will focus on El. Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, has been one of the show’s main heroic characters since the beginning. A theory discussed on Reddit claims El could have been infected by the Mind Flayer and could be used in the same way the creature manipulated creepy Billy in season 3. There is a possibility that she could be the villain in season 4 after getting her powers back.
Release date
Late last month, Georgia unveiled new coronavirus guidelines that could allow work to soon resume on Stranger Things and other productions that film in the state. This includes the use of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment, limiting contact between crew members, and frequent mandatory hand washing.
While the streamer has not yet announced what year season four will be released, according to the show’s IMDb page, the first episode will be released in 2021. Back in March, David Harbour revealed during an Instagram Q&A that season four was supposed to come out early next year, but that the release date will obviously be pushed back in wake of the virus. Filming was scheduled to wrap sometime around August with a potential December 2020/January 2021 release date on the cards. For reference, season 3 began shooting in April 2018, wrapped in November 2018 and aired in July 2019. Production for season 4 will continue when it is safe for the cast and crew members to return without the risk of contracting the coronavirus. For most places, filming looks to be getting underway in late June or July but there’s been nothing official for Stranger Things yet.
The show is also likely to continue for longer than its originally planned four season-run. Producer Shawn Levy later said that enthusiasm from Netflix and its child stars may well have convinced them to go on for one more season after that, too.
As we’ve been patiently waiting, the show’s writers have been dropping teasers and behind-the-scenes clues on Twitter, including a recent shot of all the completed scripts. The Twitter account, called Stranger Writers, tweeted a picture of all the scripts for the upcoming series, with the caption: “Stranger Things 4: the complete season #ST4. The account also tweeted a picture of the gang in the Starcourt Mall during the final episode, with the mysterious caption: “Are the kids alright?” The writers also updated viewers on what jock-turned-Scoops-Ahoy-employee would be up to now, writing: “Steve is doing his own thing, you know, working with Robin and not drinking enough water because he gets distracted easily and forgets where he put his drink.”
We can’t wait for all the action! What do you think will happen in season 4? Sound off in the comments section below. Remember to check back tomorrow for another amazing video. This has been Riveted.