Netflix has decided to give Stranger Things fans everywhere a Valentine’s Day gift in the form of a teaser trailer for season 4, providing our first glimpse at footage of the next run of the hit supernatural drama that’s currently going before cameras. And, what’s more, it features a major revelation that confirms what we’ve all been theorizing about since last summer: Jim Hopper lives!
The 50-second clip takes us to the frozen wastelands of Soviet Russia, with an ill-treated workforce slaving away over the construction of railroad tracks. Armed soldiers with vicious dogs keep an eye on them. We pan across this bleak scene before we stop on one worker who takes off his hat for a breather and reveals himself to be Hawkins’ own missing police chief. And he’s has had a shave since we last saw him.
At the end of season 3, Hopper was caught in the blast of the Russian machine that was opening a doorway to the Upside Down when it was destroyed. Though the characters mourned him, with Joyce, her sons and Eleven all moving away from the town to cope with their loss, fans didn’t buy his death for a second. Particularly, as a post-credits sequence unveiled a mysterious American prisoner locked up in a Russian bunker.
Though this promo doesn’t 100% confirm that inmate was Hopper, it highly suggests that’s the case. Either way, the chief somehow ended up in the country. Maybe he was blown into the Upside Down and emerged through another portal in Russia? Regardless, it’s clear from his determined face at the end of this clip that he’s going to do all he can to get back to the people he loves. Though how the heck he’s going to do that, we have no idea.
Stranger Things 4 doesn’t have a release date just yet, but it’s thought that it could drop on Netflix sometime around late 2020/early 2021. Watch this space for more.