Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1 revealed more about the Upside Down than we’ve ever seen before thanks to a Freddie Krueger-inspired villain by the name of Vecna. While Part 1 gave us the lowdown on who Vecna is, we are still in the dark about exactly what he wants — minus getting to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) — and what that means for our beloved crew of nerds.
It took nearly three long years for El and the Party to return to our screens for Season 4, but the distance between Season 4 Part 1 and Season 4 Part 2 is only a few weeks, so answers will be coming soon. As fans count down the days to the release, TV Guide has put together everything you need to know about Season 4’s final episodes and compiled everything you need to know to journey into the Upside Down for the most terrifying adventure this crew has faced yet.
The trailer for Stranger Things Season 4 Part 2 was released during Netflix’s Geeked Week, and everyone should be terrified. Vecna declares in the new clip, “It is over Eleven. You have freed me… You can’t stop this now,” and the warning is accompanied by footage that implies the whole Hawkins crew is going to end up in the Upside Down and Russia has a lot more than Demagorgons locked in the basement. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Argyle (Eduardo Franco) are just as absent in the trailer as they were in Episode 7.
Release Date
Stranger Things 4 premiered in May. The first half of the season was released on May 27 and Part II, containing two episodes, arrives on July 1.
Episode Lengths
Episode 7 of Stranger Things Season 4 was already movie length, coming in at over 90 minutes, but Episode 9, which caps off the whole season will be even longer. According to an interview conducted by Variety with The Duffer Brothers, Episode 9 will be two and a half hours long and contains more visual effects than the entirety of Season 3.
Recaps
Season 4, Part 1
The events of Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1 should still be fresh in everyone’s minds, but if you are still a bit unclear about the reveal of Vecna’s backstory, TV Guide is here to catch you up. For the inside take on how the Vecna reveal came together, we spoke to actor Jamie Campbell Bower about the terrifying new Upside Down villain. If you’re looking for a more beat-by-beat breakdown of where everyone is at the end of Part 1, we have that too. In a nutshell, everyone is very separated — in some cases by continents and oceans — and Vecna is ready to take over the world.
Season 3 Recap
The third installment of Stranger Things is all about fighting the Mind Flayer and preventing the Gate to the Upside Down from fully reopening. Much of the action surrounds Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery), stepbrother to Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) and a lifeguard at the community pool. In the first episode, Billy’s car crashes and he is dragged into an abandoned mill. Remember the part of the Mind Flayer that was burned from Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) in Season 2? That part never left the human world, and it once again connects to the Mind Flayer when a group of Russian scientists create a small opening in the Gate — more on this later.
In the mill, the revived Mind Flayer piece attacks Billy, and he becomes the creature’s new host. Billy is instructed to create an army of the Flayed, or those possessed by the Mind Flayer. He sets out to capture residents of Hawkins, and the first victim is his fellow lifeguard, Heather Holloway (Francesca Reale). By accident, Eleven sees Heather in trouble with Billy while she’s in The Void. She alerts Max, who is now her new best friend after Eleven broke up with Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard). Along with Mike, Will, and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), they confirm that the Mind Flayer has possessed Billy after trapping him in a sauna and witnessing his reaction to heat.
Another sign of the Mind Flayer’s return? Rabid rats in Hawkins, which Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) — who are dating this season — investigate without their editors’ permission while interning at Hawkins Post. After being repeatedly mocked for her story ideas, Nancy decides to take matters into her own hands and visits the home of Doris Driscoll (Peggy Miley) with Jonathan. During their first visit, they see a violent rat that Doris has captured — one of many that she says have been eating her bags of fertilizer. It turns out that all these rats have also been possessed by the Mind Flayer. When Nancy and Jonathan make a second trip to Doris’ home, they find that Doris is now eating fertilizer — she has become one of the Flayed.
While Billy helps the Mind Flayer build an army, another scheme unfolds. In the first episode of the season, Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) intercepts a Russian message with the radio tower he built to communicate with new girlfriend Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo). He shares this information with Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) — Steve’s co-worker at the ice cream parlor in Starcourt Mall — and together they crack the code. The secret message references the very mall that Steve and Robin work at, and the group enlists the help of Lucas’ sister Erica (Priah Ferguson) to find out more. They soon discover there is an underground operation happening directly beneath Starcourt Mall, where Russian scientists are — yup, you’ve guessed it — trying to reopen the portal to the Upside Down.
Jim Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) also learn about the Russians’ plot, but through a different method. They capture scientist Alexei (Alec Utgoff), who, through journalist Murray Bauman’s (Brett Gelman) translations, share that he’s been tasked with working on a Key machine that can open the Gate. After discovering this, Hopper and Joyce realize they must go to Starcourt Mall to shut down the operation. Throughout their journey, Hopper is hunted by Russian hitman Grigori (Andrey Ivchenko).
The storylines converge in the final episodes of Season 3. The Mind Flayer now has a tarantula-like physical form after the melted parts of the Flayed merge, and the creature is after Eleven. They battle it out, with Eleven taking the upper hand, but the Mind Flayer embeds a piece of itself into her leg. The season finale begins with Eleven using her powers to remove that Mind Flayer bit from her injured limb. She succeeds, but then realizes that her powers are gone. The Mind Flayer has followed Eleven and her friends to the mall, and they know the only way to destroy it is for Hopper and Joyce to close the Gate — thereby cutting off the Mind Flayer’s psychic link to the Upside Down. The duo and Murray go to the mall’s underground facilities with this mission. Billy also arrives at the mall, and grabs Eleven to be the next one to be Flayed. But he breaks free of the Mind Flayer’s possession, and dies trying to save Eleven from the creature.
Meanwhile, Hopper and Joyce locate the Key. Grigori appears once again and fights Hopper to stop him from deactivating the machine. Though Hopper kills Grigori, he doesn’t have enough time to make it back to the safe room. Hopper signals for Joyce to close the Gate, and she does — the machine next to Hopper explodes in the process. The Mind Flayer collapses, and Joyce and Murray return above ground. Eleven is devastated when she realizes that Hopper, who has been a father figure to her, did not make it out. Before the season ends, the Byerses pack their belongings into a U-Haul and start their move — along with Eleven — out of Hawkins. The post-credits scene takes place in a Russian facility, where guards drag a prisoner to a room with a Demogorgon. It’s back!
Official Season 4 Trailer
Netflix dropped the full official trailer for Stranger Things Season 4 on April 12, and there is plenty to unpack. The clip begins with Max sitting by the grave of her stepbrother Billy. “Dear Billy, I don’t know if you can even hear this,” Max says. “Ever since you left everything’s been a total disaster.” The trailer then teases that a war is coming. Watch the full trailer for Stranger Things Season 4 below.
Teaser Trailers
A teaser trailer for Season 4 was released on May 6, 2021. It’s hard to tell when the clip is taking place, but it promises that we will be going back to Hawkins Lab, where Eleven was raised. The footage shows Brenner (Matthew Modine) returning to address the other children who were experimented on alongside her. He asks Eleven, who appears to be locked away in a separate room, if she’s listening. Has he figured out a way to communicate directly with Eleven using telepathy? Or is she revisiting a memory?
An earlier trailer confirmed that spring break will be the latest season to get turned upside down by Stranger Things. The clip starts out innocently enough, with Eleven writing to Mike about adjusting to her new school and promising they are going to have the “best spring break ever!” Clearly, Eleven doesn’t know how jinxes work, because the montage after the declaration includes shootouts, car crashes, and explosions. It seems like things are going to be as tense as ever.
New footage was also released from Stranger Things Season 4 as part of Netflix’s TUDUM fan festival on Sept. 25, 2021. The sneak peek gave us a look at the Creel House — a new Season 4 location that will definitely give us the heebie-jeebies. On the bright side, the clip did come with a helping of Steve and the kids.
Casting
The most gut-wrenching moment of the Stranger Things 3 finale came when Jim sacrificed himself so Joyce could close the portal to the Upside Down. His letter to Eleven rubbed extra salt in that wound, with Hopper expressing how he truly feels about Eleven, seemingly too late. David Harbour previously told ET Online that he had “hope” Hopper would be the mysterious American in Russian captivity right now, saying, “He did glance around a little bit, but he seemed to be trapped and the machine exploded. And then you cut to… some town in Russia right? Where there’s some American and some prisoner. I don’t know, I mean, it seems strange.”
However, it’s not going to be all smooth sailing for the Hawkins chief of police. In a letter, the Duffers explained that “he is imprisoned far from home in the snowy wasteland of Kamchatka, where he will face dangers both human… and other.”
New cast members have been announced. In November 2020, Netflix announced eight new additions to the Season 4 cast, including three new series regulars: Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco, and Joseph Quinn. Horror legend Robert Englund joins the cast in a recurring role. Here are the official descriptions of the new characters:
Jamie Campbell Bower plays Peter Ballard, a caring man who works as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital. Tired of the brutality he witnesses day after day, will Peter finally take a stand?
Eduardo Franco plays Argyle, Jonathan’s new BFF. He’s a fun-loving stoner who proudly delivers delicious pizza pies for Surfer Boy Pizza.
Joseph Quinn plays Eddie Munson. He’s the head of the Hawkins High official D&D Club, The Hellfire Club.
Robert Englund plays Victor Creel, a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s.
Sherman Augustus plays Lt. Colonel Sullivan. He’s an intelligent, no-nonsense man who believes he knows how to stop the evil in Hawkins once and for all.
Mason Dye plays Jason Carver, a handsome, rich athlete who is dating the most popular girl in school. But as a new evil threatens Hawkins, his perfect world begins to unravel.
Tom Wlaschiha plays Dmitri, a smart and charming Russian prison guard. But can he be trusted?
Nikola Djuricko plays Yuri, a seedy and unpredictable Russian smuggler who loves bad jokes, cold hard cash, and crunchy style peanut butter.
Erica will play an even bigger role. Priah Ferguson has been promoted to series regular for the fourth season. Dustin even passed on the gang’s Dungeons & Dragons set to Erica in the Season 3 finale’s final minutes, so it’ll be fun to see whether Erica has embraced her inner nerd when the show picks back up.
Get ready to see a lot more of Murray Bauman, too. Brett Gelman, who plays Murray, has also been upped to series regular for Season 4. We’re hoping Murray’s in-depth knowledge of Russian conspiracies will prove handy in helping rescue Hopper from the Kamchatka prison he’s being held captive in!
Four new cast members have been announced for Stranger Things 4. Netflix announced on June 9, 2021, that Amybeth McNulty, Myles Truitt, Regina Ting Chen, and Grace Van Dien have joined the series.
McNulty plays Vickie, who’s described as a cool, fast-talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our heroes. Truitt plays Patrick, a Hawkins basketball star who has friends, talent, and a good life, until shocking events send his life spiraling out of control. Ting Chen plays Ms. Kelly, a popular guidance counselor who cares deeply for her students — especially those struggling the most. And Van Dien plays Chrissy, Hawkins High’s lead cheerleader and the most popular girl in school, though she’s hiding a dark secret.
Spoilers
There’ll be a “big reveal” about Hopper’s history. David Harbour appeared at Comic Con Liverpool in March 2020 and said that fans should expect to learn something major about Hopper’s past in Season 4.
“In Season 2, Eleven goes into the … basement of the cabin, and there’s five boxes, one of which has Brenner’s stuff from Hawkins Lab, one of which says ‘Dad,’ and one of which says ‘Vietnam,’ and one says ‘New York,'” he told the crowd. “I know specifically that in Season 4, we will give you a big huge reveal about Hopper’s backstory which we haven’t — you sort of sensed that in certain ways, but we haven’t really told you about it — and I’m so excited about revealing this aspect of the character. It’s one of the things that I’ve known since the first frame of the first shot, and we haven’t expressed it yet, and finally we’re going to express it in a big way. It’s my favorite thing about him that you guys don’t know about him yet. But it has to do with these backstories of New York, Vietnam, and Dad.”
The Byers family is moving to a new location. The tail end of Stranger Things 3 saw Joyce selling her house and relocating to another town with Will, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and a newly de-powered Eleven in tow, leading to a particularly gutting goodbye between the kids and the friends they were leaving behind. Matt Duffer confirmed suspicions that we might see some action outside of Hawkins, telling EW, “It’s going to open up a little bit, not necessarily in terms of scale, in terms of special effects, but open up in terms of allowing plot lines into areas outside of Hawkins.”
The first teaser for the fourth season stated bluntly that our heroes are “not in Hawkins anymore.” The same teaser also indicated that time will be a big factor in the new season, and we have some theories about how that might happen.
We know some of the movies that will inspire the new season. The Stranger Things writers spent months revealing an ongoing series of films that are all somehow connected to Season 4. The list includes (in order of reveal): The Peanut Butter Solution,The Fisher King, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, You’ve Got Mail, Ordinary People, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Billy Madison, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Black Swan, Young Sherlock Holmes, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Hackers, Silence of the Lambs, The Good Son, and more. Check out the full list on their whiteboard below.
