05/25/2022 18:12
Beatrice Predan Hallabrin
The Netflix series "Stranger Things" broke the streaming provider's viewer record with the 3rd season – and the fans just want to know: when and how will it continue? We have summarized the most important information about the 4th season for you here. Warning: spoilers!
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Will there be a Stranger Things season 4?
Netflix has become known for ending even successful series after only a few seasons. That's why Stranger Things fans have been eagerly waiting for the series to be renewed. And that's what happened in the meantime: Season 4 has been officially confirmed.
That's not a surprise, however. For one thing, Season 3 broke the viewership record – and especially in the current difficult situation for the company, it would have been reckless for Netflix to forego one of its most popular series. On the other hand, the producers and the main actors revealed in interviews beforehand that there is still material for a 4th season. There were also reports back in 2017 that Netflix would want to shoot seasons 3 and 4 back-to-back – probably because they were concerned that the cast would otherwise look older than the characters they play.
Stranger Things: when is season 4 coming?
The fourth season was confirmed, but it was not known for a long time when it would start. Filming is set to begin in spring 2020, according to Elf actress Millie Bobby Brown. Due to the corona pandemic, however, filming had to be postponed for a long time.
The creators of the series love holidays. The storyline of the first three seasons revolves around holidays and two seasons had a release date that coincided with the storyline (Halloween in the case of season 2 and US Independence Day in season 3). In the season 3 finale, there were hints that the Byers and Wheelers would spend Christmas together. That's why fans were hoping that Season 4 would be released in 2020. The first teaser trailer also spoke for it: It was published in September 2019. The teaser trailers for seasons 2 and 3 came about a year before the start of the season – so season 4 should have started in autumn (Thanksgiving) or winter (Christmas) 2020.
But since the shooting couldn't take place, there was a much longer break. But now one thing is certain: Season 4 will start on May 27, 2022. This season will be divided into two and only part 1 will be released on May 27th. The second part will continue on July 1, 2022.
Stranger Things: When will the Netflix series continue with season 4?
Which actors are back?
Beware, there are a lot of spoilers from here on out!
As for the main characters of "Stranger Things," we expect Joyce and the youngsters to be back in season 4. However, Billy (played by Dacre Montgomery) will be missing: He died in Season 3. Whether David Harbor (Chief Hopper) will also play in the next season was a big secret for a long time.
After the end of season 3, fans feared that Elf actress Millie Bobby Brown could leave the series (CHIP reported). The move would explain their absence, but "Stranger Things" is hard to imagine without Eleven. Especially if there's only one season left and Harbor says the end is already set, we're assuming Millie Bobby Brown will be around for the year.
We also suspect that Elf will get her powers back again in Season 4. She lost her abilities, but these are an important part of the series. It's hard to believe they're gone forever.
According to TV Line, there will be at least four new characters besides those already known: a grown man who stars in the scenes set in Russia, and three teenage boys (a heavy metal fan, a stoner and a high school athlete). .
This is how season 4 continues
Little is known about the plot of season 4 so far. But the short announcement trailer for season 4 says: "We're not in Hawkins anymore". And the final minutes of Season 3 also confirm something the directors hinted at back in 2017: the action will no longer (or not only) take place in Hawkins, Indiana.
Joyce and her sons Will and Jonathan leave town in the final episode of Season 3. Since Chief Hopper dies in the same episode (more on that below), Elf moves with them too. In the third season there were already several storylines that ran in parallel – and that will probably be the case in the next season as well. There will be at least two plots: one about the Byers and Elf and another about Hawkins. There are also scenes that take place in what was then the Soviet Union on the Kamchatka Peninsula. In this sense, it is already certain that part of the shooting will take place in Lithuania.
Furthermore, in the announcement trailer you can hear the famous Big Ben ringing – so there could also be some scenes in London. In this context, the title of the first episode of season 4 might be interesting: "The Hellfire Club". Marvel fans may remember that this is a group of villains featured in the X-Men comics. But an association that existed in Great Britain and Ireland in the 18th century also bore the same name. Rich men were members of this exclusive club associated with sex orgies, Satanism, and secret organizations.
Whether it's in the Soviet Union or the UK, without giving any details about the location, producer Matt Duffer mentioned in an interview that season 4 will also see portals outside of Hawkins.
Will the Chernobyl nuclear disaster be part of the Stranger Things plot?
The action of the first three seasons took place in the winter of 1983 (season 1), in the fall of 1984 (season 2) and in the summer of 1985 (season 3). Especially considering that the Duffer brothers wanted to tell the story in four seasons, it is reasonable to assume that the action of the fourth season will take place in the spring of 1986. We also know that there will be at least some scenes that take place in what was then the Soviet Union. A drastic event there at that time was the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.
At least since the mega success of the HBO series "Chernobyl" (it even beat "Game of Thrones") we know that the topic is very interesting for viewers. If Season 4 was originally scheduled for spring 2021, the release date might have coincided with the 35th anniversary since the nuclear disaster. So far there is no information on whether this will be an issue in the next season. But if the action takes place in the spring of 1986 in the Soviet Union, it would be strange if Chernobyl weren't at least mentioned. By the way: The HBO series was also filmed in Lithuania.
Is Chief Hopper coming back?
When Joyce closed the rift to the shadow world, there was an explosion. Chief Hopper died on sight during the blast. However, the fans suspect that this is not the case and that he will also be there in the next season. The most common theory is that Hopper was sent to the Shadow World in the explosion. The fans are now discussing what could have happened afterwards: A part of the fandom thinks that the Russians found and captured him. Others are of the opinion that he is still in the shadow world.
David Harbor as Chief Hopper in Stranger Things
Fan Theory: Hopper is in the shadow world
Hopper disappears in the explosion, but no body is found in the lab. Because of this, many fans believe that he has entered the shadow world and is still there. After his disappearance, Joyce gives Elf a piece of paper on which the policeman wrote a text. In it he tells Eleven, among other things, that she should "leave the door four inches open". He always told her that when Mike came to visit them.
The fans now think that this could be an indication that Hopper is in the shadow world – and he would have meant the gateway to the other side. So you shouldn't close the portal completely so that he can come back. Admittedly, this theory seems far-fetched, but not entirely unrealistic. However, it would depend on a very surprising twist: there would have to be time travel in the series, because Hopper wrote the lyrics before the explosion happened. But is that completely out of the question? Not really. For one thing, there are always hidden clues in "Stranger Things". In the third season, Hawkins' "Back to the Future" was shown in the cinema. Aside from the fact that this is a treat for all movie fans, it could also be a hint at season 4's time travel. Second, Elf can see other people's memories. What if she could influence the past too?
Last but not least, there's "Montauk" – a project the Duffer brothers worked on long before "Stranger Things" and which formed the basis of the series. This was supposed to be an "eight-hour epic sci-fi horror story" set in the 1980s, borrowing elements from the works of Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, and also incorporating time travel.
But that's not all: a Twitter user used these numbers to find coordinates on the world map. 6186258313 is the latitude. For the geographic longitude, he twisted two digits, i.e. used 1668523831. Lo and behold: You end up in Kamchatka! This is exactly the peninsula where the Russian prison is located. So is Hopper in this jail too? That could well be possible: A teaser trailer for the next season shows prisoners of the Soviets who have to work on the construction of a railway line. Hopper was among the forced laborers. The Duffers also said in an interview that they planned an ending for Hopper "like the Han Solo sacrifice" in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. And we know that Han Solo survived and was a prisoner of Jabba the Hutt.
But is Hopper the American mentioned – or are the Russians holding another one? There are also two other possibilities. Some fans think it's Dr. Brenner, who was conducting experiments with Elf at the time. In Season 1 he was attacked by a Demogorgon, but in Season 2 one of his former associates mentioned that he was apparently still alive. Last but not least, Barb (Nancy Wheeler's girlfriend from Season 1) is also a candidate. Unlike in German, the term "the American" in the original English version can stand for both a male and a female character. Barb died in season one and her body was found in the shadow world. But there has also been an alleged corpse of Will that turned out to be a fake. That's why the fans of the redhead now hope that she didn't actually die.
