Almost three years have passed since Stranger Things season 3 premiered on Netflix, but the wait is almost over. The first part of Stranger Things‘ fourth season will be arriving at the end of next month. And according to series co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer, the new season will also have a much bigger scale than previous seasons.
“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,” said Matt Duffer during Deadline‘s Contenders TV panel. “Joyce and [the] Byers family to have left at the end of season 3. They are in California… and then we have Hopper 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 Duffer brothers also indicated that season 4’s extended length will allow them to begin explaining the show’s mythology.
“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,” noted Ross Duffer. “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.”
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“Back when we did season 1, Netflix just kept going ‘Can you explain all this mythology to us?’“ added Ross. “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.”
Stranger Things is slated to end with the fifth season, which hasn’t begun filming yet. But the Duffer brothers also joked that the show would close around the release of Beetlejuice, which was a career milestone for one of the series’ leading players, Winona Ryder.
“That’s the final scene: the kids go to see Beetlejuice and their heads explode,” joked Ross Duffer.
“That’s the threshold we can’t cross, which is once Winona is a superstar in the world, like the show has to stop, because [the kids’ heads] will spontaneously combust or something,” added Matt Duffer.
Stranger Things 4 part 1 will premiere on May 27 on Netflix. The second part of season 4 will follow on July 1.
Are you looking forward to getting some answers this season? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Stranger Things: The Other Side (Graphic Novel Volume 1)
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