Get excited Stranger Things, fans, because not only is season 4 of the hit Netflix series premiering in 2022, but a spin-off series could also very well be in the works soon. In a new interview with Collider, executive producer Shawn Levy teased that the Stranger Things franchise could live well beyond the hit flagship series in the form of a spin-off. “What’s been made clear is there is an interest and a real voracious appetite for any offshoot, any other iteration format or extension of the franchise, the characters, the mythology,” Shawn told the publication. “And certainly those conversations are hardly evolved, but they’re also not non-existent,” he added.
This is major news for Stranger Things fans, considering creators Matt and Ross Duffer (better known as the Duffer Brothers) have said the show is likely to end after season 4 or 5. In the Collider interview, Shawn didn’t share exactly how much longer the series will last, but did say that he and the Duffer Brothers “have the end in sight.” Shawn continued: “There is a plan and that too will be shared not quite as soon as a sense of when Season 4 is coming out, but soon enough. I can say this. No, one’s making it up as we go along and there is an endgame, if you will.”
Netflix announced on Friday (Aug. 6) that Stranger Things will be back for season 4 in 2022. The exciting news was shared in a 30-second teaser, which included brief scenes from the upcoming season. Among them was Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) being held back by men in suits, a bald Hopper (David Harbour) holding a blowtorch and Steve (Joe Keery) underwater. “Stranger Things returns in 2022,” the caption of the video read.
The cast did their first table read for the upcoming season back in March 2020. Netflix released a behind-the-scenes video in celebration of the season 4 kickoff. However, production was shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By June 2020, the Stranger Things writers had written the entire fourth season. After several months of delays, season 4 filming resumed in October 2020.
Also returning for the new season is Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Caleb MacLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler) and Brett Gelman (Murray Bauman). There will also be serval new cast members, including Robert Englund, Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco, Joseph Quinn and Amybeth McNulty. Little details are known about the season 4 plot, but the Duffer Brothers did confirm that the first episode is titled “The Hellfire Club.”