“Stranger Things” just really loves its pastiche nostalgia. Season one felt like Amblin, the best of Steven Spielberg or “Goonies” with a sci-fi twist. Over the years, it’s morphed, and in this most recent iteration, the hit Netflix show seems to be taking its cues from ‘80s horror movies like “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Hellraiser,” which makes sense given the entire cast is growing up.
“The kids are now not kids anymore. They are in high school,” Ross Duffer explained during Netflix’s Geeked Week this week. “Suddenly, that opened up a lot of doors for us. We can put them in danger that is really scary.”
As Netflix and many big streamers are wont to do these days, season four has been chopped into two parts. Volume 1 of Season four is already available on Netflix, and the show will resume with the two-episode volume 2 on July 1.
“A lot of horror comes from humans in the story, the darkness in all of us,” Duffer added. “This season is no different.”
OK, so ‘80s pop-cultural homage has become ‘80s pop culture horror homage. Millie Bobbie Brown recently joked the cast was becoming too big, and they needed to kill off characters. Well, during the Netflix Geeked Week panel, The Duffers discussed briefly how they considered killing off Steve earlier in the show’s run. Fortunately for Joe Keery, he made the cut. “It’s not like we are making it up as we go along,” Matt Duffer explained. “The characters inform what we are doing.”
The Duffer Brothers spoke with the Hollywood Reporter in an open letter to fans about the fifth season, which has been confirmed to be the final season of “Stranger Things.”
“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for ‘Stranger Things.’ At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but—as you’ll see for yourselves—we are now hurtling toward our finale.”
The final two episodes of season 4, Vol 2 of “Stranger Things,” will premiere on July 1, 2022. Watch the new teaser below.
