Stranger Things is three seasons in, and a fourth is on the way, having been officially confirmed by Netflix. Here’s everything we know about Stranger Things 4 so far, including the possible release date and plot rumours.
Series creators the Duffer brothers had previously suggested that the show would only run for four seasons before coming to a close, though since then we’ve heard that it may run a little longer than that. We know have two trailers for show including one called ‘From Russia with love’.
When will Netflix release season 4?
We don’t have any release date for the fourth season yet, so there’s no firm answer. So far there’s been a gap of roughly a year and a half between each season, and with season three dropping in July 2019, we’d imagine late 2020 is a good bet.
The first season dropped in July, while the second was October, and the third went back to July. So October 2020 seems plausible, to hit that Halloween theme once more, though we wouldn’t be surprised if the Duffers want to explore a new time period – we haven’t yet seen anything set in winter, for example. Stranger Things Christmas or Thanksgiving special, anyone?
the first episode title of Stranger Things 4 is… ? pic.twitter.com/jUgMKFalhd
— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) 7 November 2019
What we do know is the title to the first episode of the season, which will be ‘Chapter One: The Hellfire Club’. That name is most known from the eighties X-Men comics – a group of villains from The Dark Phoenix saga. This is most likely just a pop culture nod (something this show is infamous for), but who knows? There could be some more hidden clues in this title.
Watch the trailer
There’s no proper trailer with footage from Stranger Things 4 yet, but we do have this announcement teaser:
In February 2020, director Shawn Levy posted the following sneak peek trailer with the tag ‘From Russia with love’.
From Russia with love #strangerthings4 pic.twitter.com/NKWpNN0HKk
— Shawn Levy (@ShawnLevyDirect) February 14, 2020
Who will be in the cast?
The cast hasn’t been announced yet for season 4, but we can make a few predictions. It’s a fairly safe bet that all of the core cast will return – minus anyone who may or may not have perished (no spoilers just yet).
The third season introduced a number of new characters to the show, such as Cary Elwes’ mayor, and we’d hope to see some of them stick around for next time, likely along with a few new additions. We’ll update this article as soon as we know more.
Season 4 rumours
With season three still relatively recent it’s too early to have anything except speculation about what season four holds. But when has that ever stopped us? Here’s what we think/hope we might see – naturally with spoilers for the third season.
Season three ended with the gang successfully closing the gate and destroying the Russian machine – with Jim Hopper seemingly dying in the process.
The post-credit scene (you did watch that, right?) reveals that things aren’t so simple: the Russians are still operating in, y’know, Russia, and have an American prisoner (who could that be…?) and have presumably gotten the machine there working, since they also have a pet Demogorgon.
What’s not clear is if they’ll still require some sort of link to Hawkins to keep their contact with the Upside Down alive. And if not, will the Hawkins gang end up on a road trip to Kamchatka, or will there be some other way to link the two plot threads together?
The Duffers have already said that a fourth season could “open up a little bit… in terms of allowing plotlines into areas outside of Hawkins,” and the teaser trailer hinted that ‘We’re not in Hawkins anymore,’ so it looks pretty clear that the show is about to branch outside of its defining township.
Then there’s Eleven: she seems to have lost her powers, but we would bet almost any money that before the end of season four she’ll get them back. Odds are that will also involve a return to Hawkins with the Byers family – they mentioned coming back for Thanksgiving, which could be a very neat excuse to set the next season during the season.
How to watch Stranger Things free
Stranger Things is a Netflix exclusive, which means you’ll either need to subscribe to Netflix or find a friend who already has done. Alternatively, if you’re prepared to watch the series quickly enough you can simply sign up for a month’s free trial at Netflix.com.
If you do decide to subscribe, one of the great things about Netflix is you can cancel at any time. Netflix charges a monthly subscription, the cheapest of which is £5.99/$7.99. You can pay extra to enable Netflix streaming on more than one device at a time (you can watch on your laptop, PC, TV, tablet or phone) and to unlock HD and Ultra-HD content.
Simply log in and use the Search function or look under Netflix Originals for Stranger Things, then tap to play.