Stranger Things 4 is “the scariest and the darkest, easily”

Of all the shows to come out over the past several years, Netflix’s ’80s homage Stranger Things is one of the few that truly feels like “event television.” The event passes quickly, because Netflix (mostly) drops whole seasons at once, but it everybody and their brother talking.

Stranger Things will be growing up a bit in the forthcoming fourth season. Much of the show followed a group of kids who solved mysteries in the vein of The Goonies. But those kids are no longer kids. Millie Bobbie Brown (Eleven) was 12 years old when she shot the first season of Stranger Things; now she’s 18. Sadie Sink (Max) and Finn Wolfhard (Mike) are both 19. And as the characters get older, the show will get darker. Showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer called season 4 their “Game of Thrones season,” which is foreboding. “We thought that this was a good year to put them in a full-fledged Nightmare on Elm Street-esque horror film,” Ross said.

Per Entertainment Weekly, the cast and crew of Stranger Things recently teased what’s to come. It’s a pretty legitimate statement. Wolfhard likened the maturation of the series to what happened on Harry Potter, where actors like Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson grew up over the course of the films. “As those movies went on, the darker they went. That’s kind of where we’re at now,” Wolfhard said. “Inherently it becomes darker every season. It gets funnier, it gets scarier, it gets more dramatic. I think that just comes with all of us growing up and getting older. We’re not all going to be in mop top wigs when we’re 40 years old, screaming about demogorgons and stuff.”

There’s a lot of interesting stuff from this roundtable interview, and we’re going to be digging into specifics. Be warned that there are some mild SPOILERS for Stranger Things season 4 ahead.

How Stranger Things is like Game of Thrones

Part of the reason the Duffer Brothers are calling season 4 their “Game of Thrones” season is because the characters are spread all over the map. After the climactic showdown in the mall at the end of season 3, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) took her family, along with Eleven, and moved to California. Enough horrific stuff had happened to them in the town of Hawkins that they were ready for a fresh start.

The teenage characters are trying to adjust to this new status quo. Eleven and Will (Noah Schnapp) are trying to fit in at their new school, which comes complete with bullies and other hurdles. Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) is dealing with the difficulty of having a long-distance relationship with Nancy (Natalia Dyer), who stayed back in Hawkins.

It’s not all bad though; Jonathan does make a new friend in Argyle (Eduardo Franco), a stoner pizza delivery guy who brings a bit of levity to the season. Franco said that the California story arc “is so different from what has been shown” in previous seasons. “It’s supposed to be exactly like E.T., that vibe.”

Heaton piled on more references: “Fast Times [at Ridgemont High]. Lord of the Flies. We obviously, over the years, have varied, but it was the ’80s nostalgia, where this is a different kind of take on an ’80s representation.”

Will Eleven regain her powers?

Eleven will also be looking into her past this season. “Part of the drive and tension of this season is that we have this big new evil emerge in Hawkins and for the first time ever, Eleven is not there,” Ross said. “And not only is she separated by distance, but at the end of season 3, she’s lost her powers, so even when she learns about what has happened in Hawkins, she is unable to help them in the same way she has before.”

In order to regain her powers, Eleven will have to revisit the most traumatic memories of her childhood. EW confirms that Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) is back this season. You might remember him as the abusive scientist who experimented on Eleven as a child, which is what led to her gaining her powers in the first place.

Brown said filming scenes at the Hawkins lab were pretty difficult. “[We’ll] get to see Eleven in the darkest state she’s ever been. This has definitely been the hardest season I’ve ever filmed. There have been some of the scariest, scariest things that I’ve ever seen as a human, which you guys will get to see, for sure.”

Am I the only one surprised by just how much the cast and crew are talking about the plot ahead of the season 4 release? It feels a little like we’ll know what to expect from the first episode or two. But then again, since the season is longer than usual, I’m sure there are plenty more twists and turns we know nothing about.

Joyce and Murray go on world-hopping adventure in Stranger Things season 4

As for Joyce Byers herself, it turns out she won’t be sticking around California for long. Remember that package that Joyce got in the trailer above? Turns out that it was covered in Russian stamps. That means it’s probably linked to Hopper (David Harbour), who somehow turned up in Siberia after seemingly dying at the end of Stranger Things season 3. The package contains a Russian doll and a cryptic note revealing that Hopper survived and is now in a Soviet prison. Joyce enlists the help of reporter Murray (Brett Gelman) to save him.

Gelman compares the feel of this story to Star Wars. “That Luke-Leia-Han dynamic I think really is an energy that’s constantly flowing through my scenes with Winona and David and [Nikola Djuricko, who plays Russian smuggler Yuri],” the actor said.

As for Hopper himself, his fate remains a mystery apart from what we can clean from the trailer. And speaking of mysteries…