A new batch of “Stranger Things” episodes finally arrive on Netflix this Memorial Day weekend. And after a nearly three-year wait, fans couldn’t be more excited for the fourth season (read our review of S4 Vol. 1 here). It’s a bittersweet reunion, though, as this will be the penultimate adventure with the Hawkins, Indiana crew. That’s right: in February, Netflix renewed their smash hit for a fifth and final season. That’s what nostalgia trips like this one don’t like to mention: all good things must come to an end.
But as far as The Duffer Brothers are concerned, “Stranger Things” was never meant to get this far in the first place. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the duo behind the show were candid about how their original plan for the series had no plans to keep returning to Hawkins. In fact, they intended to jump forward in time after the first season to check in with the kids as grown-ups. “It was going to be one season, and then we were going to do a time jump. We were really inspired by [the Stephen King novel] “It“” Matt Duffer told the publication, “If we wanted to continue…we’d have some of the kids as adults with their own kids.”
Of course, after season one of “Stranger Things” was so popular after it debuted in July 2016, Netflix and the Duffers had to adjust course on the show’s future. And now, after three seasons, Mike, Dustin, Eleven, Lucas, and Will aren’t kids anymore, which allows the show to explore some more horror-laden territory. “This season in particular, our quote-unquote kids are not kids; they’re teens,” said Matt. “So it felt very natural for us to put them into a horror film. It’s allowed us to go into darker places than we would’ve been able to go in season one.”
Those darker places take notes from some of the more enduring horror films of the ’80s, including “A Nightmare On Elm Street” and “Hellraiser,” alongside the show’s constant reference point of all things Stephen King. One new character, Vecna, lives in the Upside Down and preys on the teen group’s psychic unrest, similar to the iconic dream slasher Freddy Kreuger. Ross Duffer described the character as “like a shark” in the psyche of the teenagers. Matt added, “Vecna preys on these insecurities, and a lot of them aren’t even real. I think that’s what a lot of people struggle with. You’re telling yourself stories that aren’t even a reflection of reality, but you loop them, and at a certain point it becomes real. He’s that voice in your head that you can’t put away. That’s what Vecna represents.” Funnily enough, legendary Kreuger actor Robert Englund is in the new season, too, but not as Vecna.
Another article of note in the Vanity Fair interview: after they wrap the final season of “Stranger Things,” the Duffers team up with Steven Spielberg for an adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Talisman.” The 800-page tome, which King co-wrote with Peter Straub, is one of the only King works from the 1980s that hasn’t yet made it onto any screen, large or small. It’s a dream come true for the Duffers, as both King and Spielberg are the essential touchstones of the “Stranger Things” aesthetic. “Originally, that’s how we pitched “Stranger Things”, like it was an undiscovered Stephen King book that Spielberg directed,” Matt said. “That was the pitch, so the fact that [“The Talisman”] is a Stephen King-Spielberg collaboration, to be any tiny part in it is awesome.”
But before “The Talisman,” one more season of “Stranger Things” after volume two of season 4 comes out in July. After this dark, more horror-inflected season, who knows where the show will end up in its final episodes? Let’s hope the Duffers stick the landing (or that we won’t have to wait three years for that season). Volume 1 of “Stranger Things” season 4 premieres on Netflix on May 27.