"Stranger Things" Season 4 is upon us, and this is one Limited Series that Netflix has hit the proverbial jackpot with. A teenage adventure/Sci-fi/horror series with mystery, paranormal, and other-worldly elements thrown in, it’s also been a dramatic series that has captured the imagination of both a young teen audience, all the way up to adults. With such a broad spectrum of appeal, it’s not surprising to find that it’s a series that both parents and their children have bonded over.
Think of an early teenage core cast, but coupled with resonant adult cast-member narrative strands, then have them all interact within a modern day Twilight Zone/X Files setting, and you have some idea of what Stranger Things has been all about, and why it’s been so popular over its initial three seasons. The global phenomenon that is Stranger Things have turned Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard into overnight superstars, while bringing Winona Ryder back into the spotlight.
Events of this Season 4 happen six months after the Battle of Starcourt, and the new season promises a new supernatural threat descending upon Hawkins, and how solving a mystery could finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down. The return of Hopper is another teaser being mentioned for the new season.
Netflix arranged a media press event the other week, in anticipation of Season 4, which comes in two waves. Volume 1 drops on May 27, and Volume 2 on July 1. I know of several friends, and their children, who are eagerly awaiting May 27, and settling down to renew their Stranger Things journey.
The media event was held in two stages. The first group consisted of Noah Schnapp, Charlie Heaton, Eduardo Franco, Sadie Sink, Priah Ferguson, and Gaten Matarazzo. Finn Wolfhard and Caleb McLaughlin were originally set to join this ‘Cali Boys’ group, but couldn’t make it.
Maya Hawke, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, and Joseph Quinn made up the second group of the more adult members of the Stranger Things Season 4 cast. And it was good to see so many of the cast have their opportunity to meet the Asia-Pacific press, and rest to the questions prepared for them.
Unfortunately, and as can be expected, any probing questions about what would transpire in Season 4 were rebuffed, and the answers that the cast did volunteer had more to do with working relationships on the set, how they bond and create lasting friendships, what it was like taping under COVID situations, and about the age disparity of some members of the cast.
Noah Schnapp is just 17 years of age in real life, and was joking with Charlie Heaton, who’s actually 28, about how he’d look up to Heaton, and thought he was so cool. Heaton would laugh at this, and regale us with his take on the younger members of the cast.
A premiere for Season 4 was recently held, and from the initial reactions of those who watched the first episode, there’s a more mature tone, that beautifully ties in with the characters growing up. Plus the reactions on social media had a lot to do with how grown up the members of the cast who attended the premiere looked. Millie Bobby Brown was in a Louis Vuitton bustier gown, with a thigh high slit; Schnapp in a pink Dior suit.
May 27, next Friday is the day, as "Stranger Things" Season 4 drops on our most popular streaming platform, Netflix.