After a nearly three-year-long wait, Stranger Things is returning for its penultimate season on May 27, 2022, and it is supposed to be darker than ever. The total of nine episodes will be split into two volumes, the second of which will premiere on the 1st of July. This is because it’s become a lot bigger than expected, and its episodes will reportedly be almost twice as long as usual. Not to mention that the creators recently hinted at the possibility of a spin-off series after the final season if there’s an idea strong enough for that.
In an interview with Deadline, Ross Duffer explains:
"Back when we did Season 1, Netflix just kept going ‘Can you explain all this mythology to us?’ 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. And then each season we’re just sort of peeling back the layers of that onion, so to speak. But this season, we really wanted to really get into it and [reveal] some of those answers. But to do that properly, we needed time, so it just became bigger and bigger."
Let’s look at some of our burning questions that could be answered at last.
A Nod to Freddy Krueger
First of all, here’s a brief breakdown of the official trailer to help us understand the new season’s plot. Hopper (David Harbour) survived the gate explosion and ended up captured in a secret prison somewhere in Russia, as was already suggested in the post-credits scene of the season 3 finale. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) now lives with the Buyers family in California and starts a new school there before returning home for a spring break. The other friends have remained in Hawkins, where the mall fire left locals wondering what’s really going on.
The Hawkins group is exploring the local haunted house with a secret portal in its attic. Eleven, still without her powers, is asked to join a war before she is taken away in a van. Hopper is faced with a Demogorgon in some sort of gladiator pit. Max (Sadie Sink) is levitating above her brother’s grave. In a flashback scene, the younger Eleven is standing up to her captors in the lab. Steve (Joe Keery) fights some bat-like monsters in the Upside Down. Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray (Brett Gelman) are crash-landing a plane in the Russian woods. We also get a sneak peek at a new terrifying red-coloured dimension.
Possible Stranger Things Spin-Offs We Could See
We’re introduced to a couple of new characters, such as the long-haired guitar-playing Dungeon Master (Joseph Quinn) and an old man with gouged-out eyes who we know is linked to the haunted house. He is played by none other than Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, and the Duffer brothers confirm there will be references to A Nightmare On Elm Street, among several other films. The '80s horror classic inspired the show’s new main villain, Vecna, who might be the ultimate evil mastermind.
A War Is Coming
Based on the trailers and the film posters, there will be four major storylines, which inevitably lead to the Upside Down, where, as the Duffer Brothers promise, we’ll spend more time than in any of the previous seasons. There’s the haunted house group, which includes Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Robin (Maya Hawk), Steve, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Erica (Priah Ferguson), Max, and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin). The teaser trailer for this part titled "Creel House" shows a 1950s family moving in, and it seems something terrible had happened to them afterward. Then there is this mysterious grandfather clock that seems to signify the presence of something demonic. This might answer our first question - when and how did Hawkins become the Upside Down’s epicenter?
Hopper’s storyline in the snowy wilderness will hopefully bring more insight into the Russian involvement. In the teaser trailer "From Russia with love…," we see him building a railroad with other prisoners guarded by Soviet soldiers. It’s clear from the poster that Joyce and Murray will join him here. Apart from why the Russians built a Demogorgon farm in the middle of nowhere, the important question is, are there any other gates outside Hawkins?
The answer to this is already hinted at in the next poster. We see Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and another new character named Argyle (Eduardo Franco) in what appears to be Californian suburbs. The trailer titled "Welcome To California" teases a shooting in the Buyer family’s new house, a car chase, military action in the desert, and an explosion. There are suited men dragging Eleven away, which makes us wonder what part the government plays in all of this?
Stranger Things Season 4 Will Provide Answers Says Millie Bobby Brown
The "Eleven, are you listening?" trailer takes us to the playroom of Hawkins National Laboratory while the younger version of Eleven is locked up in her cell. This points to some more flashback moments from her past. Perhaps we’ll find out how she escaped and what happened with the other numbers. In the second season, she had already reunited with number Eight, Kali (Linnea Berthelsen). What happened to all the other gifted kids?
It looks like there will be a significant connection between Upside Down seeping into our world and the Cold War. Like the premise of Game of Thrones, to which the Duffer Brothers have been comparing this season, there is a war among people while incomparably more powerful dark forces threaten to destroy all of humanity. However, another thing the HBO fantasy series is famous for is killing off its main characters… This brings us to our last question. Is everyone going to make it out alive?