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The famous Netflix Original Series “Stranger Things” (2016), known for three seasons that have already conquered the hearts of millions, will only return for its 4th season in the third quarter of 2022. But so far, Netflix has already given some clues about what will happen in this new season, which left the fans even more curious and eager to know the future of the show.
With a few teasers released and the announcements from the series’ producers, the Duffer Brothers, the space is opened for predictions and theories about the upcoming season. So, we’ve gathered some things we already know about Stranger Things 4, and chatted with the Youtuber of the “Plantão Geek”, Giovana Khalil (MissWalker), who told us some theories for this new season.
Check the full interview in Portuguese at Her Campus Casper Libero Youtube Channel:
Main theories
After the events of previous seasons, many Stranger Things fans believe that these new episodes can make room for better development of where season three stopped, such as talking more about some character’s dramas after the occurrences of the previous seasons – including some outstanding character’s deaths. The audience is expecting to see how Eleven is dealing after the supposed death of her adopted father, Hopper, or how it’s been for Max after her brother’s death. With that, it would be a perfect time to delve into those issues and, according to Giovana, this would be the main theory for this upcoming season:
I believe that this is a very important moment, on the part of the plot, which involves this deepening of the traumas that were mentioned, but were not well developed.
Giovana Khalil
But another theory that came into the fans mind when talking about the new episodes is Time Traveling. The teasers released so far highlight the concept of time, with so many references to watches, making it clear that this is going to be an important thing for the plot, which made a lot of people believe that time travel is a possibility for the new season. After all, we don’t know exactly how the dear character, Jim Hopper, survived at the post-credit scene of the last episode of the previous season, “The Battle of Starcourt”. Everything we know so far is that he’s in Russia – a little clue we were given on the first teaser released in February 2020.
Directions of the old and the new characters
As stated before, Hopper is alive after the events of Stranger Things 3, but the same does not happen with many characters loved by the audience, such as Barb and Bob. Therefore, many fans are apprehensive about the new episodes and the possibility of losing another beloved character, however, Giovana explains:
In my professional opinion in film, I don’t believe that Stranger Things is the kind of series that focuses too much on the death of protagonists, it focuses on the death of ‘assistants to the protagonists’, like Barb, Billy and Bob, who were instrumental in the growth of the main ones. However, they can suddenly change the structure. But I don’t believe it’s going to be done this season, I think they’re just going to eliminate this amount of new characters.
Giovana Khalil
Speaking of new characters, the series’ producers, the Duffer Brothers, announced several new actors who will participate in this new chapter of the series. But one of the announcements that made the public most anxious was the entry of the character Vickie, played by Amybeth McNulty, who once played Anne in another Netflix show: Anne With An E.
According to the Stranger Things producers, Amybeth’s character is going to be a “cool, fast-talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our beloved heroes”. Yet, even though we don’t have much information about her, fans speculate she’ll enter the series to get romantically involved with Maya Hawke’s character, Robin Buckley.
I believe she will serve as someone’s romantic interest and I believe Robin will be that interest, but I don’t know if it will be reciprocated. I think Vickie’s fate will be in the hands of the fans. If they like it too much, she’ll be back next season.
Giovana Khalil
Other details
Stranger Things 4 will happen during 1986 and will have scenes in several places besides the classic Hawkins, as in the city of California, focusing on the drama around Eleven, Joyce, Will and Jonathan after their moving post-Hopper’s death to start over. Besides, in addition to following Hopper’s journey, Russia will possibly appear a lot in this upcoming season. The series will also develop the story of the mysterious Creel family that appeared in the 3rd teaser. The Creel’s will probably help us figure out the source of the famous Upside Down – since we are talking about a 50s family, that went through some similar problems as our protagonists in the 80s.
Unlike other seasons, the 4th chapter of this series will have nine episodes which we already know the titles. Check out the list:
1. The Hellfire Club, Vecna’s Curse
2. The Monster and the Superhero
3. Dear Billy
4. The Nina Project
5. The Dive
6. The Massacre at Hawkins Lab
7. Papa
8. The Piggyback
Fans’ eagerness to see this fourth season is big, so the team behind this great Netflix series has taken care of every little detail. This care is being recognized by fans and actors themselves, such as Sadie Sink, interpreter of Max Mayfield. During an interview with Collider, the actress said that this season will be bigger than ever. Giovana Khalil reinforces this statement by praising the photography in the series:
One thing I found very interesting about all the teasers is that each one uses a different photograph, which shows that the responsible director of photography is having a very big responsibility for the setting. So I think this season they’re going to do a really good job of contrasting the photographs, which for me, professionally speaking, is pretty appealing.
Giovana Khalil
But after all, what do you think will happen this season? What do you want to see the most in the trailer? Do you have some theories on your mind? Until the release of this 4th chapter, we still have much time to watch all three seasons and be more excited for Stranger Things 4.