When Netflix announced—unsurprisingly—that it was bringing back its massively successful YA sci-fi series Stranger Things for a fourth season, it did so with a teaser that suggested the series might be outgrowing its small town roots, declaring, “We’re not in Hawkins anymore.” (The interludes in Chicago and a Russian prison over the last few years have certainly expanded the series’ scope.) Now we’ve finally got a more full look at the show’s fourth season, unleashed by Netflix this morning as part of its irritatingly named Tudum event.
And if we’re getting out of Hawkins, it doesn’t look like it’s happening just yet, as “The Creel House” seems fully immersed in the history of that doomed little Indiana town. The clip opens with a family in the 1950s, happily moving into a house that they do not yet know is a portal to hell/the Upside-Down. We then cut to the show’s also-in-the-past present day, where Dustin, Max, Lucas, Lucas’ excellent high-top fade, and an adult man still hanging out with teenagers start poking around this obviously haunted-as-hell mansion, looking for “clues.” (Clues to what? We’re going to have to wait another several months to find out, but that clock sure seems pretty Amytiville Horror.)
Stranger Things continues to star Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, and, yes, David Harbour, whose Hopper was actually confirmed to be returning by creators the Duffer Brothers as early as last February. (We guess nobody felt like playing coy about whether one of the show’s biggest names might still be on the roster.) In addition to its increasingly deep bench of friends, little sisters, and Bretts Gelman, the series has also added three new additions to its cast of regulars for season 4, adding Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco, and Joseph Quinn to the mix.
Stranger Things last aired new episodes on July 4, 2019; the fourth season is expected to air some time in 2022.