Stranger Things season 4 is arguably the most anticipated Netflix TV show in production right now. The next instalment in the extremely popular series is currently being filmed, but that hasn't stopped the cast and crew from giving us snippets of information to keep us excited.
The latest news comes by way of leaked on-set images, which appears to show that one of the show's main characters will experience some form of accident in season 4. We also have a much clearer idea of when principal photography may end, which will go some way to revealing when season 4 could finally be released.
If you want more Stranger Things 4 information than that, we've got you covered. We've assembled everything worth knowing about the action horror drama TV show, including its potential release date, new cast additions, teaser trailers and more.
A word of warning: we're entering spoiler territory for the first three seasons of Stranger Things from now on. If you're someone who isn't caught up on the whole series, it's time to leave this page. For the rest of you, let's see what's new about Stranger Things season 4.
- Here are the best Netflix TV shows, including Stranger Things
- These are the best Netflix supernatural TV shows to stream
- Ozark season 4: release, trailer, cast, plot and more
Stranger Things season 4 release date: 2022?
Stranger Things season 4's release date hasn't been announced yet. That isn't surprising, what with principal photography still ongoing, so we can't say when it'll arrive.
However, fans have been told not to expect it to air until 2022. That's according to Finn Wolfhard, who portrays Mike Wheeler, in Stranger Things. In a chat via online meet-and-greet platform Fanmio, Wolfhard was asked about when season 4 may arrive. In somewhat disappointing news, he confirmed that fans shouldn't expect to see season 4 arrive until next year.
Check out Wolfhard's response, which was uploaded to the StrangerThingsSpoilers Twitter fan account, below:
pic.twitter.com/oV1p6Rg8FNApril 18, 2021
Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) also teased when season 4 may arrive. Like Wolfhard, Schnapp was asked about its possible release date during a Fanmio chat, and he suggested that it could be out sooner than we think, revealing that principal photography should be completed "by the summer" and then "the season will be out".
The tweet, which had Schnapp's comments embedded in it, has since been deleted, but rest assured that's what the actor had said.
Schnapp's comments don't necessarily means that season 4 will arrive sometime this year. The next season will need to be edited, post-production has to be carried out to include VFX and other behind-the-scenes elements, and there's always the possibility that reshoots will be required.
Additionally, David Harbour, who plays Detective Jim Hopper, teased that filming may be wrapping up soon. In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Harbour revealed that he was "almost done" with filming on season 4. Not only that, but the Black Widow and Hellboy star also said that "we should be done in August", which tracks with Schnapp's earlier comments.
The trio's estimation has seemingly been backed up by Netflix, too. As part the streaming giant's Q1 2021 shareholders' letter, which was released in mid-April 2021, Stranger Things season 4 was notably absent from a list of productions confirmed to be arriving in 2021.
Netflix revealed that TV shows including The Witcher season 2, You season 3, and Sex Education season 3 would launch later this year, but Stranger Things was nowhere to be seen. If anything, this confirms that we won't see season 4 until 2022.
Filming began back in February 2020, according to this GameSpot article, but production was shutdown soon after as the pandemic hit. Principal photography restarted in late September last year in the state of Georgia (h/t Newsweek), while other set locations have been spotted in nations including Lithuania. The country's recently decommissioned Lukiškės Prison was used for specific scenes and, if we had to guess, we'd say these relate to Hopper's Russian imprisonment (more on this below).
meanwhile in the upside down... pic.twitter.com/BtPlMjy0pSOctober 1, 2020
There are other aspects of the series that the cast and crew do know about, however. Speaking with Vogue in October 2020, Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler) mentioned that, in terms of Stranger Things season 4, "while I can't say a lot, except that it’s going to be a while before it comes out, it will definitely be worth it. It’s going to be really big."
Season 4 won't be the final entry in the series either, even though its ending has been planned. "Season 4 won't be the end," co-creator Ross Duffer told THR. "We know what the end is, and we know when it is." We can expect at least one more season after this, then, though there has been speculation that there will be six seasons in total before the TV show is done and dusted.
Stranger Things season 4 trailer: is there one?
Yes, but it's only a teaser trailer. You can watch the 50-second long video below, which was released in February 2020, and confirmed the survival of one key character from season 3:
A welcome gift on Valentine's Day? Stranger Things have happened. pic.twitter.com/6bUFvnyrjYFebruary 14, 2020
Another teaser trailer has been released since this Hopper-centric one, too. We've posted that further down the page, though, to coincide with our plot speculation.
It'll be a while yet before we see an official trailer. Once that is released, we'll be sure to update this hub.
Stranger Things season 4: Hopper is alive
As the above teaser revealed, Hopper survived the events of season 3's finale. His fate was unknown after he convinced Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) to cause the Russians' machine – which opened a gate to the Upside Down – to self-destruct, despite Hopper being trapped inside.
However, fans had speculated that Hopper hadn't died in the blast. At the end of season 3, when Russian soldiers said "the American" shouldn't be fed to a captive Demogorgon in a mid-credits teaser, fans thought they knew who the soldiers were referring to. It could only be one man: Hopper, and the season 4 teaser above confirmed as much.
We don't know much else about what Hopper will be doing as part of his imprisonment, but the actor did go live on Instagram in his season 4 costume – an outfit fans already saw in the season 4 teaser trailer – a while back. While Harbour didn't give anything away, he did FaceTime Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), and the duo briefly confirmed that they were currently filming, or had filmed, in Atlanta:
Stranger Things season 4: what will the story be about?
While there isn't an official synopsis yet, we've been receiving steady trickle of new information from the series' cast and crew – and all signs point towards season 4 being darker than its predecessors.
Joe Keery, who plays Steve Harington, told Total Film that season 4 will be the "scariest yet", and David Harbour revealed (per Deadline) that Hopper's journey this season will be "painted in a bit of a darker palette."
That's not all either. In a March interview with Collider, Matarazzo revealed that the Duffer brothers had finished writing the season 4 scripts, which is a far cry from how the duo had written the first three seasons.
For seasons 1 through 3, the Duffer brothers were still penning the final couple of episodes while filming was ongoing – a process that led to some "panic writing" on their part, according to Matarazzo. This time around, though, the Covid-19 pandemic allowed the pair to finish writing season 4 before principal photography restarted last September.
Matarazzo was also a guest on the April 7, 2021 edition of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. During the chat, Matarazzo claimed that season 4 would be the "scariest" one yet, and that the Duffer brothers were "really going for it this year".
In a separate ET Online interview, Maya Hawke was asked about Robin's season 4 story arc. Hawke didn't give anything away, but she did hint that the Duffer brothers "really dig into her this season", so we can expect to see Robin take a more active role in season 4.
One seemingly confirmed piece of information we do have, which relates to season 4's plot, is its length. In a tweet posted by the Stranger Things writers' team – uploaded in June 2020 – it appears that there will be nine episodes in season 4, just like there was in season 2:
Stranger Things 4: the complete season. #ST4 pic.twitter.com/DAjQFnPVGqJune 18, 2020
While the image above seems to only show eight scripts, Dyer appeared to confirm that there would be nine entries in season 4 (h/t The Hollywood Reporter).
The official Stranger Things Instagram account has also revealed the title of season 4's first episode. It'll be called 'The Hellfire Club', and this will relate to one of the new characters who will be appearing in Stranger Things' next chapter:
We're also expecting to see more of Eleven's backstory play out in Stranger Things season 4. A new teaser, which arrived on May 6, is centered around a flashback to when Eleven was one of Doctor Brenner's child test subjects at Hawkins National Laboratory.
The video also suggests that Brenner may still be alive, if the end of the teaser is anything to go by, and that we should expect another two teaser videos before season 4's eventual release:
There are also plenty of unresolved plot threads from season 3. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has seemingly lost her powers, while the gang has been split up with the Byers family leaving for pastures new.
Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Eleven have departed after Joyce sold her home, with the likes of Mike and Nancy left to mull over long-distance relationships with Eleven and Jonathan respectively.
Max (Sadie Sink) will be dealing with the fallout from brother Billy's death, too, and that's all before we consider what Hopper's dealing with in his new surroundings. Add all of that onto the Duffer brothers' sinister chatter about a new horror rising, and season 4 will be jam-packed of threads to begin and tie up.
Finally, leaked set photos appear to show Eleven will be involved in some sort of accident in season 4.
The images (published by Metro UK) appear to show the fan-favorite character being wheeled out on a stretcher, towards an ambulance, by two paramedics. In another photograph, police and the US army inspect the site where a building has collapsed.
Naturally, it's unclear what this means for Eleven's arc in season 4. Given that she lost her abilities in season 3's finale, though, the two incidents may be linked. It's that, or Brenner has found and kidnapped her, so he can continue his sinister experiments.
Stranger Things Season 4 cast: who is portraying who?
The TV show's core cast will reprise their roles for season 4:
- Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers
- David Harbour as Detective Jim Hopper
- Millie Bobby Brown as 'Eleven'/Jane Hopper
- Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler
- Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson
- Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
- Noah Schnapp as Will Byers
- Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
- Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers
- Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield
- Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley
- Joe Keery as Steve Harington
Brett Gelman, who played conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman in seasons 2 and 3, has also been bumped up to a series regular. Meanwhile, Priah Ferguson, Matthew Modine, Joe Chrest and Cara Buono will also reprise their roles as Erica Sinclair, Matthew Brenner, Ted Wheeler and Karen Wheeler respectively.
As we mentioned above, Modine should be back as Brenner due to his presence in one of the teaser trailers. It's unclear if Brenner is still alive, or if his return will solely be based on flashbacks to Eleven's childhood.
In November 2020, Variety also detailed the eight new faces we'll be seeing in Stranger Things season 4. Tyner Rushing's IMDB page has revealed she has been cast in a bit-part role, while Joel Stoffer will play another supporting character (h/t Collider):
- Jamie Campbell Bower (Sweeney Todd) as Peter Ballard, a caring orderly at a psychiatric hospital.
- Eduardo Franco (Booksmart) as Argyle, Jonathan's new best friend. A fun-loving stoner and pizza-delivery boy.
- Joseph Quinn (Catherine the Great) as Eddie Munson, audacious metalhead that runs Hawkins High's D&D society, The Hellfire Club. At the centre of this season's key mystery.
- Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) as Victor Creel, a disturbed, intimidating man imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s.
- Tom Wlashicha (Game of Thrones) as Dmitri, a Russian prison guard who befriends Hopper.
- Sherman Augustus (Virus) as Lt. Colonel Sullivan, an intelligent, no-nonsense man who believes he can stop the evil consuming Hawkins for good.
- Mason Dye (Teen Wolf) as Jason Carver, a handsome, rich sport star, whose perfect world unravels as evil spreads.
- Nikola Djuricko (World War Z) as Yuri, a Russian smuggler.
- Tyner Rushing (Lovecraft Country) as Virginia Creel, a relative of Victor's.
- Joel Stoffer (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) as Warden Hatch.
Bower, Franco and Quinn's characters have been added as main cast members, while the others will be recurring throughout season 4.
Finally, four new cast members were revealed as part of the Netflix Geeked Week event in early June:
- Amybeth McNulty (Anne With an E) as Vickie, a cool, fast-talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our beloved heroes.
- Miles Truitt (Queen Sugar) as Patrick, a Hawkins basketball star who has friends, talent and a good life... until shocking events send his life spiraling out of control.
- Regina Ting Chen (Queen of the South) as Ms. Kelly, a popular guidance counselor who cares deeply for her students – especially those struggling the most.
- Grace Van Dien (Charlie Says) as Chrissy, Hawkins High's lead cheerleader and the most popular girl in school. But, beneath the seemingly perfect surface, lies a deep secret.
Will Stranger Things season 4 be in 4K / HDR?
If you're interested in Stranger Things, you may be wondering what video formats the next season will be filmed in.
All three seasons so far have been filmed in 4K Ultra HD resolution, meaning anyone with a 4K TV and a strong enough internet connection will be able to watch in a huge amount of detail. Seasons 2 and 3 are also in HDR (high dynamic range), meaning an expanded range of colors and enhanced contrast – important for a show awash with bright colors, dazzling neon and moody skies – though again you'll need an HDR-compatible screen to make the most of it.
Netflix also uses the Dolby Vision HDR format, rather than the competing HDR10+ standard – we know this is a lot to think about with your next TV, but some only support one format over the other.
- The Witcher season 2: here's what we know so far about the next series
No comments:
Post a Comment