Five years ago, “Stranger Things” premiered and became an instant hit on Netflix, introducing millions of people to a quirky and lovable group of kids in Hawkins, Indiana, and a sinister world known as the Upside Down.
Since “Stranger Things” debuted, 196 million households have watched at least one episode of the series, Netflix shared in a Twitter post on Thursday.
Now, fans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Season 4, which was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To celebrate five years of “Stranger Things,” here are five things we know about the new season.
There’s going to be a big reveal about Jim Hopper
Actor David Harbour, who plays Hawkins’ Chief of Police Jim Hopper in “Stranger Things,” has long been vocal about how the fourth season will delve more into the background of his character.
But he recently told Entertainment Tonight that the upcoming season will reveal a secret about Hopper he’s known for five years.
- “There’s one thing in it that plays very big in this season that I’ve known since the first frame of the first season,” Harbour said. “We never thought we’d even get a second season, and then we get to do it in this season. It’s so satisfying to have had an idea five years prior, and to go like, ‘Oh, this is a season when we’re gonna let out this secret. ... We’re gonna lay it out finally, and it’s really cool.”
Harbour said Season 4 is his favorite season yet, and that it shows a completely different side to Hopper.
- “There’s some fun stuff that we’re doing this season, but it’s also the heaviest dramatic stuff I’ve ever had to do,” Harbour told Entertainment Tonight. “We get to see a lot of Hopper at his most vulnerable, we’re gonna reveal a lot of backstory points that we’ve only hinted at. ... We’re gonna see a lot of these different threads, and also, we get to see a rebirth of him.”
It will be more ‘mature’
Actor Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin Henderson, has said the tone of “Stranger Things” Season 4 is more mature compared to the earlier seasons.
- “I think they do that on purpose because I think they want their show to mature with their kids,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “As we are growing older as people, we have to grow older as characters. They’re confronted by this issue, but they embrace it, and they use it to their advantage. And they don’t freak out when we get taller or when our voices drop or anything like that. They use it and they use it as ammunition for their writing. It’s incredible what they can do. Working with them, it’s just exceptional. Always has been.”
It will reveal more about Eleven’s past
In a trailer released in May, “Stranger Things” hinted that the fourth season will delve more into Eleven’s past. Appearing to be a flashback, the teaser returned to Hawkins Lab, where Eleven and other children who were raised as test subjects by Dr. Martin Brenner are playing with toys and games.
The scene sets up the possibility of including other children like Eleven in the “Stranger Things” storyline — a theme the show explored for one episode in Season 2, the Deseret News reported.
It also gives Matthew Modine’s Dr. Brenner — who was presumably killed by a demogorgon at the end of Season 1 — the chance to return to the show as more about Eleven’s past is revealed.
There’s a lot of new characters
A slew of new characters are joining Hawkins, Indiana, for Season 4.
The lengthy list of additions includes “Anne with an E” star Amybeth McNulty, a “band nerd” who will play a “big role in events to come”; Grace Van Dien as Chrissy, a Hawkins’ High cheerleader who harbors a dark secret; and Myles Truit as a Hawkins basketball star named Patrick, the Deseret News reported.
Other new cast members include Eduardo Franco as Argyle, Jonathan’s new best friend, and Joseph Quinn portraying Eddie Munson, who runs Hawkins High’s official Dungeons and Dragons club, according to the Deseret News.
It won’t be the end
Season 4 won’t be the end of “Stranger Things.”
- “We know what the end is, and we know when it is,” Ross Duffer, co-creator of “Stranger Things,” told the Hollywood Reporter. “(The pandemic) has given us time to look ahead, figure out what is best for the show. Starting to fill that out gave us a better idea of how long we need to tell that story.”
Harbour, who stars in the movie “Black Widow,” recently hinted that a fifth season of “Stranger Things” will be in the works.
- “I think on my Netflix talking points list, I’m not supposed to say that there is a fifth season,” he said, according to Syfy.com.
- “If you were on set with someone doing a show that possibly might have a fifth season, I’m sure that those people, if you were close to them, as I am with the Duffer Brothers, would probably bring up things that might move forward into that next season,” he teased.
So, when will “Stranger Things” Season 4 come out? We still don’t know. But during a recent appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Harbour said production on the season would wrap in August 2021, Netflix Life reported.
Based on that timeline, Collider has reported that at the earliest, Season 4 will come at the end of 2021, although it is more likely be released during the first half of 2022.