After a two-year hiatus, Netflix has begun dropping hints about the upcoming season of their hit original series “Stranger Things.” The highly anticipated fourth season was delayed in production during the first half of 2020. Now that filming has resumed, it’s only a matter of time before the fourth season will finally be available to stream. The show resumed filming in October 2020 and is set to finish production in August. With a new teaser finally released in the past month, now is the perfect time to catch up on the first three seasons of “Stranger Things.” While we wait for Netflix to announce the official release date of season 4, here’s what we know so far.
In May, Netflix dropped a new teaser titled “Eleven, are you listening?” The teaser takes the audience back to the Hawkins Laboratory, one of the key settings of the first two seasons. In the teaser, the audience is introduced to a room, now dubbed The Rainbow Room by fans, filled with children of varying ages in hospital gowns. If you are familiar with the show, the look is instantly recognizable as Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) signature look after emerging from captivity in the pilot of the show. Hidden underneath the town of Hawkins, Indiana, the children, like Eleven, are associated with numbers. While not shown on screen, the audience is reintroduced to Papa (Matthew Modine), also known as Dr. Brenner, who addresses the children living in numbered rooms. We don’t know the full extent to how the series will dive into this character’s past, as he hasn’t been explored since season 2, but all signs so far point to more super-powered children hidden in suburban America.
If you need refreshing, Dr. Brenner (Papa) was introduced at the very beginning of the show as the closest thing Eleven has to family. While not particularly parental, he acted as a father figure for the girl he held captive, and it appears this was true for other children as well. As season one wore on, Brenner was also revealed to be the mastermind behind Hawkins Lab, and had raised other children in the same fashion as Eleven, one of whom, a teenager that was numbered as Eight, shaped much of the plot of season 2. This particular plot line was not revisited in the hugely popular season 3 that aired in the summer of 2019. There has been little to no information about the plot of season 4, but this teaser hints at a return to the show’s roots.
Netflix doesn’t seem to be offering up any larger nods at what is to come with this new teaser, having no concrete plot connections with other promotions that have dropped. Months before the shutdown, the first teaser was released, promising answers for the audience after an emotional and open-ended season 3 finale. We know for a fact that, despite fears that he was gone for good, David Harbor will be returning as Jim Hopper. Harbor himself has recently confirmed on “The Jimmy Kimmel Show” that “Stranger Things” is still in production and will wrap up production by the end of the summer. Given this timeline, it is unlikely the new season will be released this year and will likely be released sometime in early 2022. While waiting for season four, this summer is the perfect time to start your rewatch, or to finally start the show, to prepare for your return to Hawkins.
“Stranger Things” seasons 1-3 are available to stream right now on Netflix.
By Emily Frantz