Netflix has been hyping Stranger Things season 4 for the longest time – remember when we first learned Hopper was in a Russian gulag way back in February 2020? – but we still don’t fully know what to expect from this next run of the TV phenomenon. Season 3 was maybe a little lighter, for instance, with its focus on teen romance and comedy moments, but it sounds like season 4 will go all-in with the horror.
That’s what Finn Wolfhard is promising, anyway. While speaking on the Matt Wilkinson Show, the Ghostbusters: Afterlife star admitted that the cast always says this every year, but this time it’s definitely true. The actor, who played Mike Wheeler, teased that this season will really “freak” audiences out.
“We say it ever year like, ‘This season’s scarier. This season’s scarier,’” Wolfhard said.. “This season is like truly messed up, and it’s going to freak people out a lot… You know [creators] the Duffer Brothers are doing things that people haven’t seen before in the show, which is really refreshing, because if the show has been going on for as long as it has, you want people to still care.”
We already know one new storyline coming up in season 4 that could contribute to it being the scariest run yet. The promo showcased at the recent TUDUM event introduced the Creel house, the site of some brutal killings in the 1950s that has some unknown ties to the present (well, the 80s), forcing the kids to venture into the chilling, probably haunted home.
Given that this sounds more like something from American Horror Story than Stranger Things, it’s no surprise season 4 ups the ante on the horror front. Not to mention that Victor Creel is played by one of the biggest horror icons around, Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. The sanitarium where he’s incarcerated is likewise expected to be a key location.
Stranger Things 4 is set to massively expand the world of the show overall, with various new cast members coming aboard – including Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco, Joseph Quinn, Tom Wlaschiha, Sherman Augustus, Mason Dye and Nikola Djurick. It’ll also have nine episodes, like season 2 before it. Netflix has yet to reveal when we can expect it to release.