By Radio Times Staff

Published: Tuesday, 24 May 2022 at 12:00 am


Stranger Things fans, prepare yourselves for more creepy goings-on!

Over three years since we last saw Eleven, Mike and the rest of the Hawkins gang, it’s almost time to step back into the world of the thrilling Netflix series.

The first half of the beloved series’ fourth season is set to land on Netflix later in May, while the second half will follow in 2022.

And, judging by Sadie Sink’s recent comments, the next chapter is going to be stranger (no pun intended) than ever.

“It’s the most bizarre season we’ve ever had,” she told People. “Just the scale of it is out of this world.

“We get to explore a lot of different themes and different sides of the characters that everyone knows and loves, so I’m looking forward to it. It’s coming!”

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press in May 2022, Sink also revealed that her character Max has a darker storyline in the coming episodes.

“I mean, yeah, she had some heavy stuff this year. It was kind of a nice challenge, figuring out what these types of [moods] looked like on Max and find something that felt true to her. The writing was really good. So it made my job a lot easier,” she said.

“It was kind of a more careful process than I think I was used to in previous seasons. Because, I mean, we were always dealing with supernatural elements and heavy stuff like that. But season 4, it feels a little bit more human. So it required a little bit more attention and focus.

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Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in Stranger Things season 4
Netflix

Season 4’s arrival is bound to be bittersweet for fans, with the Duffer brothers having confirmed that season 5 will be “the last” and that it will conclude the show for good.

A trailer was previously released which teased some more details about season 4 – revealing that it will pick up 185 days after the previous season and showing Eleven adapt to her new home in California, while also including shady government types and a big explosion…

Earlier trailers had included footage of Eleven being restrained by an unknown character and some spooky scenes of the rest of the gang entering the Creel house, which used to be owned by a character played by Freddy Krueger legend, Robert Englund – so it looks like there’s an awful lot to look forward to.

Read on for everything we know so far about Stranger Things season 4 on Netflix.

Stranger Things season 4 release date

Stranger Things season 4 part 1 will land on 27th May 2022.

However, fans will have to wait until 1st July 2022 for season 4 part 2.

And with some pretty staggering episode runtimes, the upcoming season is going to be bigger than ever.

In March last year, David Harbour (Hopper) revealed during an Instagram Q&A that season 4 was originally “supposed to come out” in early 2021, but that the release date would be “pushed back” in wake of COVID-19.

If things hadn’t had to be paused, it looks like filming would have finished up in August 2020. The script was finished a while ago, and production started in March 2020.

Actor Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) told Fanmio that filming was set to wrap in summer 2021 and this was backed up by David Harbour’s comments on a June episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, where he revealed that shooting is “almost done”.

“I’ve got one more little stint, we should be done in like August,” he said, although an effects-heavy show such as Stranger Things will require several months of post-production.

Star Finn Wolfhard had previously suggested we wouldn’t see season 4 until 2022, telling a Fanmio user that Stranger Things 4 “should be out some time next year hopefully”.

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Priah Ferguson, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin in Stranger Things season 4
Netflix

Co-star Gaten Matarazzo employed a similar strategy when he was quizzed on a release date by Collider in March 2021, saying there was still quite a bit of filming to get through.

“There’s very few dates that are reliable,” he said. “It really is more of a ‘guesstimation’ on when we’re gonna be filming next, when we’re gonna be wrapping up, when release is gonna be, all that jazz because we still don’t know on day-to-day if we’re gonna be filming next week.”

He added: “I should be filming like next month for a bigger chunk than I’ve had in a bit, but even though it’s coming up in about two weeks from now, I still don’t know an exact date. So because of that, there’s really no way to figure out when we’re gonna be wrapping.”

Production was underway for quite a while, with some select scenes actually completed before the first lockdown until filming was halted as the pandemic spiralled out of control.

On the bright side, the forced stop allowed The Duffers to improve the scripts before they returned to set – we imagine that could also slow things down if the changes related to already filmed scenes.

Executive producer Shawn Levy told Collider he saw this as a positive. “The pandemic definitely massively delayed shooting and therefore the launch of our current season 4,” he admitted. “But it impacted very positively by allowing the Duffer brothers, for the first time ever, to write the entire season before we shoot it and to have time to rewrite in a way that they rarely had before so the quality of these screenplays are exceptional, maybe better than ever.”

Shooting also takes longer with the new safety measures in place.

“It’s definitely a slower process than usual, which is really saying something because we take our sweet time making the show anyway. So it’s not as steady paced or as consistent as I think any of us would like it to be, but we do our best and we’re playing it by ear,” Matarazzo told People. “And I think the most important thing is that when we’re working, we’re all staying safe.”

What we do know all this work will be worth it. Dyer told Vogue: “Honestly, the scripts are great. I’m very excited. I’m excited for Nancy. Every time we end a season, we all think, where is this going to go? Where can this possibly go? Then we get the scripts for the next season and we’re, like, ‘Oh my God, wow, like, wow!’ So, while I can’t say a lot, except that it’s going to be a while before it comes out, it will definitely be worth it. It’s going to be really big. It’s going to be big!”

Stranger Things season 4 cast

Stranger Things cast has grown over the past few seasons, as well as suffered a few casualties, but we expect to see all the main Stranger Things cast back for season 4.

Stranger Things season 4 will star; Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Will (Noah Schnapp), Max (Sadie Sink), Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Robin (Maya Hawke), Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David Harbour).

Netflix has shared a few behind-the-scenes photos of the cast including Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Sadie Sink (Max), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) and Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), back when they were starting work on Stranger Things season 4.

Since it’s not exactly a secret anymore that Hopper didn’t die in season three, Harbour has been talking about his return too.

Talking to Total Film, Harbour said he always knew where they were going with his character. “I’ve known from the get-go… I’ve had those discussions with them [the Duffer brothers] from the very first season. We were always interested in that idea of the Gandalf resurrection – Gandalf the Grey who fights the Balrog and then becomes Gandalf the White.”

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Winona Ryder (left) in Stranger Things 4
Netflix

A few of the cast have also been promoted to series regulars, including Priah Ferguson, who plays Lucas’s sister Erica (of “you can’t spell America without Erica” fame). Netflix has also officially announced new cast members joining for season 4. Three new series regulars as well as some big-name recurring stars have been confirmed.

The new regulars include Eduardo Franco (Booksmart) as Argyle, who is described as “Jonathan’s new best friend, a fun-loving stoner who proudly delivers delicious pizza pies for Surfer Boy Pizza” and Sweeney Todd star Jamie Campbell Bower as Peter Ballard – “a caring man who works as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital.”

They are joined by Catherine the Great’s Joseph Quinn, who plays Eddie Munson, “an audacious ’80s metalhead who runs The Hellfire Club, Hawkins High’s official D&D club” and Bosch star Mason Due who plays handsome student Jason Carver.

Among those to play recurring roles is none other than Freddy Kreuger himself, Robert Englund – and it looks like he may be inspiring just as many nightmares in Stranger Things, with his character Victor Creel described as “a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s”.

The other new recurring stars include Tom Wlaschiha (best known as Jaqen H’ghar in Game of Thrones) as a Russian prison guard who befriends Hopper, Sherman Augustus (Westworld) as an intelligent, no-nonsense man who believes he knows how to stop the evil in Hawkins and Nikola Djuricko (Genius) as a seedy and unpredictable Russian smuggler who loves bad jokes, cold hard cash, and crunchy style peanut butter.

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Stranger Things cast members in season 4
Netflix

Meanwhile, eagle-eyed fans have spotted a few new cast members on set – including Levon Thurman Hawke, the younger brother of Maya Hawke (Robin). While Netflix declined to comment on the rumours, Thurman was spotted on-set with Joe Keery (Steve Harrington) in October.

However, in November 2021, Maya set the record straight and revealed that her younger brother Levon won’t be featuring in season 4.

“My brother is not in the show!” she Radio Times magazine. “He came to visit me. The COVID policies were really intense, as they should be, so the only way he could come to set was if he was dressed as an extra and did COVID testing.

“And that was a day that the paparazzi were there, so they got a picture of him, and it was all: ‘Nepotism strikes again!’ Guys, no! He’s not in the show, but you may potentially see him once, in one shot. So, calm down, internet!”

Also joining the cast is Agents of SHIELD star Joel Stoffer, who has been cast in a currently-secret role, with the actor telling Comicbook.com: “I’ve got a role that we haven’t shot yet on Stranger Things.

“I don’t expect it to become anything like long term… I was sent the pages of my scene and I didn’t know any of the actors or I didn’t recognise any names in my scene.”

Dr Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) returned for season three, and looks like he’s back for season 4. Dr Sam works for the US department of Energy and was made Director of Operations at Hawkins Lab after Dr Martin Brenner exited.

He was behind the investigation into the Gate to the Upside Down, and he also helped Hopper adopt Eleven. With his return we expect to see more action around the department…

While we’re talking about doctors, Brenner could also return. We’ve seen a few teasers looking at the other children at the facility as well as Eleven, will we see more of Brenner and the experiments he conducted? While he was dragged down and attacked by a Demogorgon in season one, we never know someone’s dead until we’ve seen a body when it comes to sci-fi and horror!

The new cast members were announced on the Stranger Things Instagram account, which shared a list of new cast members in the style of the Upside Down.

Robert Englund will play Victor Creel, “a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital”.

Eduardo Franco (Booksmart) plays Argyle, “a fun-loving stoner, pizza delivery boy and Jonathan’s new best friend.”

Jamie Campbell Bower (Twilight Saga, young Grindelwald in Harry Potter) plays Peter Ballard, “a caring man who works as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital”.

Sherman Augustus plays Lt Colonel Sullivan, “a no-nonsense man who believes he knows how to stop the evil in Hawkins.”

Mason Dye (Teen Wolf) plays Jason Carver, “a handsome, rich athlete dating the most popular girl in school.”

Nikola Djuricko plays Yuri, “an unpredictable Russian smuggler who loves bad jokes, cold hard cash, and crunchy style peanut butter”.

Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H’ghar) is Dmitri, a “smart and charming Russian prison guard”.

Joseph Quinn plays Eddie Munson, “the head of the Hawkins High official D&D Club, The Hellfire Club.”

Reading between the (casting) lines here, we’d say there’s a pretty safe bet that we’re leaving Hawkins in season 4 for the colder climate of Russia.

In June, Netflix teased another round of casting updates with upside down Polaroids, accompanied by a bio for each one.

Anne with an E’s Amybeth McNulty is set to play Vickie, “a cool, fast talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our beloved heroes”, while Kin’s Myles Truitt stars as Hawkins basketball star Patrick “who has friends, talent and a good life…until shocking events send his life spiralling out of control”.

Queen of the South’s Regina Ting Chen is set to play school guidance counsellor Ms Kelly and The Village’s Grace Van Dien has joined the cast as Hawkins High cheerleader Chrissy – “the most popular girl in school” with “a dark secret”.

Stranger Things season 4 trailers

The first full-length trailer for the series was released in November 2021 – and revealed that the series would be pick up 185 days after the events of the previous run.

You can check out the trailer bel0w, which also includes Eleven speaking to Mike about settling into her new home in California, the rest of the gang being pursued by government types and a fair amount of gunfire…