Stranger Things boss says season 4 is “our Game of Thrones season”

The fourth season of Stranger Things is around the corner, and creators Matt and Ross Duffer are kicking things up a notch. “I don’t think we have an episode clocking in under an hour – even in season 1 there were episodes that were like 35 minutes,” Matt said during Deadline’s Contenders Television panel. “This season, they’re very long, so I think it’s almost double the length of any season. So that’s one reason it’s taken so long. It does have this sort of epic quality to it. It’s a different feel, for sure.”

"We kind of jokingly call it our Game of Thrones season because it’s so spread out, so I think that’s what’s unique or most unique about the season."

Ross agreed that the upcoming fourth season has a Game of Thrones-ian feel to it. “We didn’t know how big the season was going to get, and we didn’t even realize until we were about halfway through, just in terms of how much story that we wanted to tell this season,” he said. “Game of Thrones is one thing we’ve referenced, but also for us really what it’s about is revelations, in that we really wanted to start giving the audience some answers.”

Stranger Things 4 will “start giving the audience some answers”

It is about time we learned just what exactly was going on in Hawkins, Indiana. What was the exact nature of the experiments that gave Eleven her powers? What is the Upside Down? And how is Hopper alive after what happened in season 3?

“Back when we did Season 1, Netflix just kept going ‘Can you explain all this mythology to us?’“ Ross remembered. “So we wrote this giant 20-page document, which talked about everything in terms of what was going on and what exactly the Upside Down was. And then each season we’re just sort of peeling back the layers of that onion, so to speak. But this season, we really wanted to really get into it and [revealing] some of those answers. But to do that properly, we needed time, so it just became bigger and bigger.”

Another issue is that the characters are now so spread out, when before they were all concentrated in one spot. “Joyce and the Byers family have left [Hawkins] at the end of season 3,” Matt said. “They are in California – we’ve always wanted to have that like E.T.-esque suburb aesthetic, which we finally got to do this year in the desert; and then we have Hopper [David Harbour] in Russia; and then of course we have a group remaining in Hawkins. So we have these three storylines, are all connected and kind of interwoven together, but it’s just very different tones.”

The idea of different characters playing out storylines great distances from other does indeed sound like Game of Thrones. I’m here for it.

A Stranger Things season 4 trailer is coming tomorrow

Meanwhile, Netflix has set up a live stream that is counting down to the release of a new Stranger Things trailer. It takes the form of a creepy clock set up in a town square, which you are free to watch passersby goggle at:

That means the trailer should drop at noon CST tomorrow! See you then.

The first half of Stranger Things season 4 premieres on May 27, with the second chuck coming on July 1.

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h/t GamesRadar