Stranger Things Season 4 is upon us – but there are a few changes.
Each Stranger Things season has featured eight or nine episodes. The series co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer say the upcoming fourth season will be much longer, so it is being split into two parts.
Netflix has shared an open letter from the Duffer Brothers that details elements of Stranger Things’ fourth season, which they described as “the beginning of the end”. They also announced that the show’s fifth season will be its last.
“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,” the brothers say. “At the time, we predicted the story would last for five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but — as you’ll soon see for yourselves — we are now hurtling toward our finale.”
Because of the fourth season’s runtime, the Duffer Brothers and Netflix ultimately decided to split it into two volumes consisting of nine episodes that will be far longer than any we’ve seen from Stranger Things so far.
“With nine scripts, over eight hundred pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a runtime nearly twice the length of any previous season, Stranger Things 4 was the most challenging season yet, but also the most rewarding one.”
Netflix hasn’t shared many details about season four aside from its episode titles and a quartet of new posters depicting various Stranger Things characters from important locations all approaching the Upside Down. While the streaming platform shared even less about Stranger Things’ fifth season, the Duffer Brothers made clear that while it’s going to bring Eleven’s specific story to a close, that doesn’t necessarily mean that this will be the end of the larger Stranger Things franchise.
“There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, and new unexpected heroes,” the Duffers say. “But first, we hope you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down.”
Stranger Things 4 – Volume 1 premieres 27 May, and Volume 2 premieres 1 July.