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‘Stranger Things’ Season 4: Netflix Release Date & What We Know So Far

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Stranger Things – Picture: Netflix

Stranger Things is returning for a fourth season at Netflix but production is currently on hold due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Here’s the latest on season 4including release date to production updates, new cast members and anything else that’s relevant.

The Duffer Brothers and all the cast and crew involved have done an incredible job making Stranger Things the flagship show on Netflix. Since the series debut in July 2016, the show has gone from strength to strength and is now embodied in pop culture.

Season 3 of Stranger Things released on July 4th, 2019.

So let’s get to it. Let’s dive into everything you need to know on Stranger Things season 4.

Has Stranger Things been renewed for season 4 and when will it release?

Official renewal status: Renewed (last updated: 09/30/2019)

After a few days worth of teasing leading up to September 30th, 2019 Netflix finally confirmed that Stranger Things would be returning for a fourth season.

In addition, as you can see in the tweet above, Netflix has signed a multi-year deal with The Duffer Brothers. This deal is on top of the one Netflix already has with Shawn Levy who is a producer on the show.

The announcement of season 4 came accompanied by a video that had the captions “We’re not in Hawkins anymore”.

You can see an extended version of the announcement on YouTube where the clock plays more of a role. Could this suggest we’re going to be seeing a time-jump?

Originally, we were expecting season 4 of Stranger Things to release in 2020 as teased in this Tweet by the Stranger Writers below.

However, with the production halt (see below for more details on that) the series is now all by officially confirmed to be pushed back to 2021.

When in 2021 will depend on how quick production can get back on track.

Production Updates for Stranger Things Season 4

Where is Stranger Things season 4 in production: On hold (Last updated: 05/24/2020)

Thanks to our source, we know that filming for Stranger Things season 4 began on January 7th, 2020. We also learned that filming was scheduled to conclude by August 5th, 2020.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, filming has since been put on hold as of March 2020.

Production will continue when it is safe for the cast and crew members to return without the risk of contracting the coronavirus. As of May 2020, that is currently believed to be at some point in June 2020.

Where is filming taking place?

For the first time in the show’s history, some of the production will take place outside of Atlanta.

As we learned from the teaser trailer, the team behind Stranger Things had begun filming extensively in Vilnius, Lithuania. Alongside set pictures, Movieweb announced they had wrapped filming at that location in February 2020.

You can see some leaked footage from Stranger Things 4 in this video below.

 

The bulk of the filming will once again take place in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, we know that the series is being filmed under the working title of “TARECO”. A Tareco is a Brazilian biscuit that originates from the Northeast region.

Stranger Things behind the scenes

Stranger Things is heading to New Mexico for shooting some parts of the fourth season. Confirmation as to who/where and which actors will be filming in New Mexico hasn’t happened. It could result in another climactic finale, or possibly scenes for Hopper? Or maybe, the Byers and Eleven have moved all the way to New Mexico to get as far away as they can from Hawkins, Indiana.

Is season 4 the last season of Stranger Things?

Looking beyond season 4 for Stranger Things is difficult, especially as we don’t know how the story will wrap up in season 4 yet.

Shawn Levy, however, has spoken about the future of the show saying:

“I mean I will say we have a good sense of stuff that happens in season four. Season four is definitely happening. There’s very much the possibility of a season beyond that one, that’s currently undecided. And what I would just say is part of the chaos and fun of this particular show is that while the Duffers and the writer’s room and we producers outline the entire season, the Duffers really use the writing process to revisit, reassess and question all of their prior assumptions.

So even though we always start off with a good sense of the major arcs of the season. We’re always ready for shifts and surprises because if the Duffers stumble into a different or surprising inspiration while they rewrite the script, we’re going to follow that inspiration and throw out some ideas in order to embrace some new ones that are more exciting. And I have no doubt that season 3 will be no exception.”

What do the Duffer Brothers have to say?

But from what was said it’s still unclear on whether or not a fifth season is happening. Even the Duffer Brothers are uncertain about where they stand on a fifth season. In an interview with Enews, the Brothers had the following to say:

Ross:

“We don’t actually know. I think, you know, four to five seasons is likely where we’ll end up, but who knows? I mean, none of this official, and we know where we want to go. We’re trying to figure out still how long it’ll take to get there, so we’ll see.”

Matt: 

“It’s hard, like four seems short, five seems long. So I don’t know what to do.”

We do, however, have more to look forward to from The Duffer Brothers and indeed Shawn Levy who all have exclusive output deals with Netflix over the next few years.

What’s the episode count and names for Stranger Things season 4?

The fourth season will also be receiving eight episodes like the first and third seasons.

On November 7th (which is Stranger Things Day), the Stranger Writers Twitter account announced the name of the first episode and who’s writing it.

  • Episode 401 – “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club” – Written by The Duffer Brothers

What can we expect from Stranger Things season 4?

Season 3 left us with plenty to ponder for next season. We can expect some of the following to be revealed.

Who is “The American?”

This question has since been answered thanks to the teaser Netflix dropped for Stranger Things season 4.

How did Hopper survive? Well, we never saw Hopper’s body disintegrated by the outburst of power from the Russian’s machine but left to assume the worst.

Hopper must have used the opening between worlds by the machine to jump from Hawkins to Kamchatka. Alternatively, he may have ended up in the Upside Down, only to be caught by Russians.

There’s every chance that Hopper could use the machine to make a return journey to the USA. We suspect that the pet demogorgon being held by the Russians could have a part to play in Hopper’s eventual escape.

Jim!? – Copyright. Netflix

Are the Byers and Eleven going to return to Hawkins?

After the tearful goodbye to their friends and Hawkins, the Byers and Eleven have moved away to pastures new. Before leaving Mike and Eleven have made it clear they’ll be talking to and visiting as often as they can. Mike will go to the Byers place for Thanksgiving, and Eleven will ask Joyce if she can stay at Mike’s for Christmas.

It’s our hope the next season will be based at Christmas, which would give writers an easy reason to write characters to be in Hawkins at the same time. Regardless, characters such as Eleven and Will are critical to the story thanks to their connection to the Upside Down.

Jonathan’s return to Hawkins would coincide with his relationship with Nancy Wheeler. As for Joyce, she’d likely tag along just to make sure Will and Eleven are safe.

How will the Mindflayer return?

If anyone thought the Mindflayer was destroyed is sadly mistaken. The creature seen throughout the third season was a conduit used by the Mindflayer and not the Mindflayer itself.  With the connection between the Upside Down and our world shut, the conduit body lost its “signal” to the Midnlfayer thus the body was destroyed.

The Mindflayer is safe and sound in the Upside Down but is trapped for now. He’ll definitely be returning with a vengeance and will likely look to enact his revenge on the town of Hawkins after being thwarted twice.

As to how he returns will be very interesting. The past two occasions when he’s possessed humans has not gone to plan. Arguably possessing one of the Russians would be a far better option than a teenager from Hawkins.

The Mindflyaer will return – Copyright. Netflix

Have the Russians tamed a Demogorgon?

The big reveal at the end of the fourth season was shown to be a Demogorgon had been captured by the Russians. At first, it looked the Russians had found a Demodog until it stood on its hind legs revealing the true form of the creature.

The Russians plan to tear open a portal to the Upside Down in Kamchatka must have been a success. While the facility in Hawkins was shut down, the Kamchatkan base is still fully functional. Given time to perfect the research, the machine may now give the Russians access to Upside Down as and when they please.

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.

Dustin’s connection to D’Artagan also gives us reason to believe that creatures from the Upside Down can form bonds, however small. So if the Russians raised this particular Demogorgon from birth/spawn, then maybe they were able to tame the monster. Or of least the Demogorgon likes to be fed on a regular basis and the Russians can study the creature. Also, the Demogorgon has the ability to go in and out of the Upside Down, which leads us to wonder why it willingly would stay in a cage.

A Demogorgon – Copyright. Netflix

More experiments to appear?

In the second season, we learned that Eleven wasn’t the only experiment to escape the Department of Energy. Eight was also able to escape and she made it her mission to take down the people related to the experiments. Like Eleven, Eight also exhibited powers of her own. Instead of telekinetic abilities like Eleven’s, Eight could cast illusions, become invisible through her illusions and also clairvoyance.

We didn’t see any further experiments in season 3 but director Shawn Levy heavily hinted we could see more in the future:

“I think we’ve clearly implied there are other numbers, and I can’t imagine that the world will only ever know Eleven and Eight”

Several cast members and crew members have been speaking about season 4 so here’s a roundup on what they’ve been saying.

Hiro Koda (who we recently got an interview with) who serves as the stunt co-ordinator for Stranger Things said the following:

“It’s going to be epic. There’s lots of great surprises and all your favorite people are in it, It’s going to be so good. It’s so epic. I’ve gotten to read through almost eight scripts now, it’s pretty awesome. I don’t know how many we’re going to get.”

David Harbour has teased what’s in store for Hopper for season 4 saying:

“I know specifically that in Season 4 we will give you a big, huge reveal about Hopper’s backstory”

There’s also been a good few other leaks about season 4 which include:

  • Three more teens supposedly joining the main cast
  • Starcourt Mall will return

Who can we expect to see return for the fourth season of Stranger Things?

The biggest casting question going into season 4 was whether David Arbour would be returning.

Thanks to a tweet from Netflix in February 2020, we now have confirmation that David Harbour will be returning to role of Jim Hopper in season 4.

Thanks to the first teaser trailer, we know that Tom Wlaschiha will be featured in season 4. His exact role and to what extent he’ll be featured has yet to be learned.

In late February 2020, Netflix confirmed that Priah Ferguson had been upped to a series regular for the fourth season.

There’s plenty of new roles coming to Stranger Things in the fourth season, we’re just waiting for confirmation on which actors will be cast in the new roles.

We also got word in April 2020 that Nikola Đuričko will be in season 4:

Other Stranger Thing News

Are you looking forward to the release of Stranger Things Season 4? Let us know down in the comments.

Courtesy of: whats-on-netflix.com

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