“To state the incredibly obvious, it’s been way, way, way, way too long, and it’s coming,” promises “Stranger Things” producer Shawn Levy of the highly anticipated Season 4.
Audiences last saw the residents of Hawkins in 2019 for the epic showdown against the Mind Flayer at the Starcourt Mall. The Season 3 finale closed with the beloved Jim Hopper (David Harbour) seemingly dead, the Byers family leaving town and the Russians’ facility destroyed…at least for now.
“Stranger Things” Season 4 is one of Netflix’s most anticipated titles, and after a delay in production due to the pandemic, Levy says he has spent the last couple of months shooting a large chunk of the season.
“I shot in Lithuania right before the pandemic. We have filmed in Georgia, Lithuania and New Mexico, so suffice to say Season 4 is sprawling,” he says. “It’s visually and narratively very ambitious, much more ambitious than the prior three seasons.”
“The delay is due in large measure to COVID and the pace at which we have to work to do so safely, but it also happens to be the season that we chose to go much bigger. It’s the scale of this season and the multi-settings of Season 4,” he adds.
Audiences got a glimpse of what’s to come when a teaser trailer released in May, showing things had gone awry since the Season 3 finale. For one, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) appears to be locked behind a door in the very sort of institution she was raised in. “Eleven, are you listening?” a voice says, causing her eyes to shoot wide open. The voice is assumed to be Papa, a.k.a. Dr. Martin Brenner, the former scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy who raised test subjects at Hawkins Lab, including Eleven.
The scale takes time to do it right. For now, Levy says, “It’s coming soon enough. And as for when exactly that will be announced — quite soon.”
Earlier this summer, Amybeth McNulty (“Anne with an E”), Myles Truitt (“Queen Sugar”), Regina Ting Chen (“Queen of the South”), and Grace Van Dien (“The Village”) had been cast in the series. The four new additions join series leads Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, and Joe Keery. Priah Ferguson was also upped to series regular status on the show for Season 4.