Stranger Things season 4 will have a “mature” tone as the show grows up

Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) recently teased that the upcoming fourth season of the Netflix show may take a grim turn. “It’s definitely high-action for sure,” he said. “I’d say it’s our darkest season, which is saying something because it’s not a very light-hearted show. There are funny moments, but it’s a pretty dark premise. This is definitely our season where I think it takes its most disturbing turn.”

Indeed, Stranger Things has never been a bright and cheery show — these kids have been dealing with interdimensional monsters and raging teen hormone from Day 1 — but things were always leavened by the fact that the main cast is, for most part, kids, whether it’s Dustin or Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Eleven (Mille Bobby Brown) and the rest.

But those kids are growing up lately. The first season of Stranger Things came out in 2016 when Matarazzo was 13, and he filmed it when he was even younger. He’s 18 now, which means he’s not gonna be able to convincingly play a tween. None of the young cast members will.

Stranger Things will get more mature along with its aging stars

So what does the show do? Does it dress the kids in clothes too small for them and act like they’re younger than they are. According to Matarazzo, creators Matt and Ross Duffer are good at rolling with the punches. “When it comes to the tone of the season, it’s definitely, I think the tone is definitely matured for sure, and I think they [creators Matt and Ross Duffer] do that on purpose because I think they want their show to mature with their kids,” he told Entertainment Tonight.

"As we are growing older as people, we have to grow older as characters. They’re confronted by this issue, but they embrace it, and they use it to their advantage. And they don’t freak out when we get taller or when our voices drop or anything like that.  They use it and they use it as ammunition for their writing. It’s incredible what they can do. Working with them, it’s just exceptional. Always has been."

So when Matarazzo says the season will be “mature” and “dark,” he may not just be referring to the latest batch of creepy crawlies to harass the town of Hawkins, Indiana. These kids are growing up and dealing with more adult problems. The mix of supernatural horror and coming-of-age drama is what’s made the show so compelling thus far.

Again, Matarazzo trusts the Duffer brothers, saying their goal is “to make sure that the bar is raised every single season, but it’s raised not too much to a point at which we couldn’t be able to exceed or match what we’ve done prior. They know what their show is, they know what people like about it. They know what they want and they’re going to get it too.”

When will Stranger Things season 4 be on Netflix?

That’s a lot of talk about maturity. There’s still times for Matarazzo and Noah Schnapp (Will) to play video games with Jimmy Fallon on his show:

They’re getting older but they’re not old, after all.

As for when we might see Stranger Things season 4, I’d strap in. The show has a history of long waits between seasons, and the pandemic has only made things worse. Season 4 is filming now, so hopefully we’ll see it by 2022 at the latest.

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h/t Digital Spy