After a three-year hiatus, Stranger Things is finally returning to Netflix for its fourth season.
The hit sci-fi drama – which follows a group of friends on the search for answers after witnessing supernatural activity – is scheduled to release the forthcoming series in two parts.
Volume one will be released on 27 May, followed five weeks later by the second volume on 1 July.
Despite the lengthy pause between its latest instalments, Netflix has announced that fans can expect one more chapter, before the series concludes with its final fifth season.
In an open letter posted to Netflix in February 2022, the show’s creators the Duffer Brothers confirmed that “season five will be the last” and called season four “the beginning of the end”.
Speaking previously to Hollywood Reporter, show creator Ross Duffer confirmed that there would be another season after the forthcoming one. “Season four won’t be the end,” he stated. “We know what the end is, and we know when it is. [The pandemic] has given us time to look ahead, figure out what is best for the show. Starting to fill that out gave us a better idea of how long we need to tell that story.”
Ahead of its highly-anticipated return, star Finn Wolfard has said that, as the cast of the series has grown older, the show has become darker, in much the same way as the Harry Potter franchise did.
The rest of the cast has also already issued a warning to younger fans that this next season is “disturbing”.
In the official trailer for season four, a terrifying new villain from the Upside Down is introduced.
The clip shows Jim Hopper in a Russian internment camp, Joyce and the Byers family in California having been relocated after the Battle of Starcourt, and Eleven still without her powers.
In preparation for the new release, read here for everything you need to know.
Stranger Things season four premieres volume one on 27 May on Netflix, followed by part two premiering on 1 July.
