By Cecilia Gutiérrez, MWN
After much anticipation, ‘Stranger Things‘ is back. Season 4 takes place six months after the Battle of Starcourt and now a new and bigger threat will appear in Hawkins, which could become the toughest enemy the characters will have to face so far.
‘Stranger Things’ became one of Netflix’s most anticipated premieres, since the pandemic had delayed its release. The hit streaming series keeps most of the main cast: Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery. Season 3 stars Maya Hawke and Brett Gelman also return, as does David Harbour, who mysteriously comes back as Hopper after his apparent death at the end of last season. There are also some new faces joining the cast, including Jamie Campbell Bower, Joseph Quinn and Eduardo Franco.
The new season is split into two parts and the final two episodes will not be released until July 1. In total, there are nine episodes and, as announced by the platform, they will be of long duration, none will last less than an hour and the last three will have the length of a movie. The season finale, in fact, will be two hours and 30 minutes long.
This new installment is set in three locations. Eleven leaves Hawkins with her friends and goes to a desert town in California. There, she manages to make a more normal life as a teenager, but as is the tone of the plot, she faces a new threat: a monster called Vecna.
Millie Bobby Brown, who stars as Eleven, told to Vanity Fair that “I cried a lot this season,” detailing that “this is the most emotional season for Eleven. She’s powerless and she’s trying to fit into a new school and she’s trying to understand who she is and where she comes from,” she said, explaining about the character who started out as a girl that is struggling with her identity.
“This is the darkest state she’s ever been in. She’s sad and I had to cry a lot – it was extremely difficult for me to cry so much!”
Her scene partner Sadie Sink (who plays Max Mayfield) stated that “it’s the strangest season we’ve ever had. The scale alone is out of this world,” he noted to People magazine. While the actress also added that the new villain is “really scary.”
The artist also referred to the bond created by the cast working on the production since 2016: “We’ve built a family and it’s a really special and unique bond. I’m going to miss everyone.”
Bobby Brown commented on the nostalgia of no longer working together: “It’s something we grew up with. We started when we were kids, so it’s going to be harder to let go of it, because of the bonds we generated between all of us.”
Meanwhile, regarding the final season, the show’s creators Duffer brothers, stated that while there are many loose ends to be closed, they have a definite direction.
“Once we actually sit down and write the final season, anything could change,” Ross Duffer noted.
Matt Duffer concluded: “I doubt the ending is going to change. It’s conceivable that it could change, but I think it’s unlikely because it’s one of those endings that just feels and always felt right.”
