Netflix has released the trailer for the long-awaited fourth season of Stranger Things. After a teasing countdown that has been running for the last 24 hours, the first good look at the new season finally arrived, and you can check it out below.

Over its first three seasons, Stranger Things has seen the residents of Hawkins face a growing threat from the creatures of the Upside-Down, and this time around the story has become too big to be contained with the small town, meaning a much broader scope for the season. While the previous seasons have told their own contained tales, there have been questions about what the Upside-Down is, how it came to be and what happened to all of the other subjects being used in the same way as Eleven, which are all still to be answered. With the show heading towards a final fifth season, we can expect some payoffs and some more mysteries from the penultimate two-part season that kicks off on May 27.

Series creators The Duffer Brothers have already revealed that this season became much larger than originally planned, and a lot of that seems to come down to the fact that they know the end is near and there is still a lot of story to tell. Discussing the show during Deadline’s Contenders Television panel, Matt Duffer explained that this season and the answers that they wanted to start giving fans. He said:

“We didn't know how big the season was going to get, and we didn't even realize until we were about halfway through, just in terms of how much story that we wanted to tell this season. Game of Thrones is one thing we've referenced, but also for us really what it's about is revelations, in that we really wanted to start giving the audience some answers."

Related: Stranger Things: How the Netflix Series Pays Tribute to 80s Horror

Stranger Things Season 4 Will Deal With The Mythology of The Upside-Down

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Netflix

During the same panel, Ross Duffer doubled down the reasons for the new season being much longer than its predecessors. Unlike many series that have no real idea where they are going, Netflix was keen to know exactly what the show was about when the Duffer’s pitched the idea, and that led to a lot of thought going into exactly what the Upside-Down was. It is from this root that the new season draws much of its details. Ross Duffer told the Contenders Television panel:

"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."

Bigger isn’t always better, but this is Stranger Things, a series that has not put a foot wrong since it brought Eleven, the Upside-Down, and the town of Hawkins to screens in its first season. Now as it begins wrapping up the story, fans need to prepare for a rollercoaster ride to the finish line that kicks off this May.