Stranger Things has finally returned for a fourth season after massive delays due to the coronavirus.
Here’s everything we know about season 4, including when you’ll be able to watch the second part of the season.
If you want to know what else is on Netflix, we’ve done a roundup of the best upcoming shows and movies on the platform this month.
When will Netflix release season 4 of Stranger Things?
Stranger Things season 4 has arrived – well, most of it, as the season has been split into two parts.
The first seven episodes landed on 27 May 2022, and the last two (episodes eight and nine) will arrive on 1 July.
Stranger Things season 4 volume 2 trailers
The sneak peek at volume 2 of season 4 shows off the Mind Flayer, multiple Demogorgons, Robin captured by Vecna and much more. Watch it below:
The full official trailer also has some clips that we’ve not seen yet, including Eddie playing the guitar in the Upside Down – so they must be from the final two episodes.
Stranger Things season 4 episode titles
We now know all the titles of the episodes in season 4, and there are some cryptic clues here. Here are all the names:
Episode 1 – The Hellfire ClubEpisode 2 – Vecna’s CurseEpisode 3 – The Monster and the SuperheroEpisode 4 – Dear BillyEpisode 5 – The Nina ProjectEpisode 6 – The DiveEpisode 7 – The Massacre at Hawkins LabEpisode 8 – PapaEpisode 9 – The PiggybackWho is in the cast?
We know that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Will (Noah Schnapp), Max (Sadie Sink), Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Robin (Maya Hawke), Hoppe (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) will all be returning.
Variety has reported that
Priah Ferguson has been promoted to a series regular on the show. Ferguson stars as Erica Sinclair, the hilarious younger sister of the main character Lucas. She featured in season 3 quite heavily, so this move is unsurprising.
At Netflix’s Geeked Week, the Duffer brothers unveiled some new cast members. These include Amybeth McNulty as Vickie, a band nerd who is a love interest for one of the Hawkins members, Myles Truitt as Patrick, a basketball star whose life spirals out of control, Regina Ting Chen as Ms. Kelly, a guidance counsellor, and Grace Van Dien as Chrissy, a Hawkins High School cheerleader with a dark secret.
The third season introduced a number of new characters to the show, such as Cary Elwes’ mayor. We hope to see some of them stick around. Joel Stoffer has also been cast in an unnamed role for the series.
Victor Creel will be portrayed by Robert Englund. According to Fandom, Creel is imprisoned at Pennhurst Mental Hospital for a gruesome murder.
What will happen in Stranger Things season 4 volume 2?
Here’s what we think/hope we might see – naturally with spoilers for volume 1 of the fourth season
Stranger Things season 4 dropped with some huge reveals, namely surrounding the big bad of the series, Vecna.
The big bad of this season is also known as Peter Ballard, the first experimental patient at Hawkins Laboratory, making him One. In addition, he was formerly known as Henry Creel, the son of Victor Creel – a man who was falsely accused of murdering his entire family back in the fifties – a crime that Henry actually committed.
Peter tried to reason with Eleven back when she was a young patient and asked her to join forces to take revenge on humanity as it had wronged him so much. However, after killing nearly everyone in the lab (including children), Eleven banished him to the Upside Down, where he took on his monstrous form.
Vecna has been preying on people in Hawkins who have a lot of guilt inside of them, and using their murders to create gateways to the real world – which can only assume is his plan to continue to conquer humanity. Now that Eleven has her powers back and knows the truth about Vecna, we imagine that she will reunite with the Hawkins crew to take him down.
“We learn more about our new monster this season in the Upside Down, though there is still a lot we don’t know about him. But we’re discovering how things work between the Rightside Up and the Upside Down.” – Natalia Dyer on Vecna in STRANGER THINGS 4 pic.twitter.com/sPndNBbNLo
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) June 2, 2022
However, she and Mike’s crew are also being chased by the US government – so that could be a big issue.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Hopper and Joyce managed to reunite. But the latest trailer appears to show more Demogorgons lurking about, plus what seems to be a trapped Mind Flayer. Will they make it back to the US?
Back in Hawkins, Steve and Nancy are still in the Upside Down after trying to take down Vecna from the inside – and Nancy is, unfortunately, his latest victim. After Max’s encounter, we know that music is the key to breaking the evil spell. Robin found some tapes in Nancy’s room earlier in the season, so there is a chance she could be saved.
The trailer also shows Eddie playing the guitar in the Upside Down, which could be linked to rescuing Nancy. That said, there haven’t been any big deaths yet – and the cast is growing pretty big. There is a chance that we will say goodbye to at least one of the Hawkins crew at the end of this season.
Will Stranger Things season 4 be the last?
Thankfully, no. In an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter, the Duffer brothers confirmed that season 4 will not be the last and that the break from filming has given them the opportunity to flesh out the plot. Ross Duffer stated, “[the pandemic] has given us time to look ahead, figure out what is best for the show. Starting to fill that out gave us a better idea of how long we need to tell that story.
Netflix has now confirmed that season 5 will be the final season, but there could be a big spin-off on the way in the future.
Whilst you wait for more season 4, Netflix also has a scripted fiction podcast called Surviving Hawkins, focusing on the character Robin. You can listen to the first episode below:
