Eleven is back in the new Stranger Things season 4 trailer, and she looks nothing like her old self—but what does this major appearance overhaul imply for her character? Fans of Stranger Things have been eagerly awaiting the return of the Netflix series for over two years now. The sci-fi horror hit’s season 3 debuted in mid-2019 and since then, the Stranger Things audience has had to make do with occasional set photos and teaser trailers to satisfy their curiosity about the upcoming season 4.
To be fair to the creators, shooting the series during the global COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably proven challenging, particularly when star David Harbour called Stranger Things season 4 the show’s biggest yet. Nonetheless, a new teaser trailer landed on YouTube and offered (very) brief glimpses of almost all the show’s major players. Among the familiar faces was Stranger Things heroine Eleven—although she looked nothing like she did when viewers last saw her.
Eleven looks radically different in the momentary glimpse that viewers got of the series' star. The teaser trailer doesn’t show much footage of the Stranger Things heroine, but it is immediately obvious that her long hair and new bangs are a marked change from her shorter hair in season 3, prompting some fans to wonder why the new look. The makeover is likely intended to fulfill two functions, the first of which is showing the passage of time, as this season is likely to feature a sizeable time jump post-season 3 so Stranger Things can avoid It: Chapter 2’s de-aging issues. The second reason for the new look could be that it is intended to illustrate Eleven’s growing closeness with her surrogate mother Joyce. Eleven’s new hair looks similar to Joyce’s signature do, meaning on a practical level that her adopted mother is likely styling her hair, and on a more symbolic level, that Eleven has grown closer to Joyce now that they're living together, with the Byers matriarch replacing Hopper as the key parental figure in her life.
What makes this an interesting angle for the series to take is that Hopper (still alive and exiled in Siberia, for anyone who couldn’t keep track of Stranger Things season 3’s many subplots) has had his head shorn between seasons. While Eleven has grown closer to Joyce and is starting to look like her adopted mother, her adopted father now resembles (in hair and circumstance, if little else) the Eleven of Stranger Things season 1—a scared but tough escapee of a top-secret government facility, an escapee out for answers. It is a compelling inversion of their earlier appearances, and one that bodes well for Stranger Things season 4 in terms of character development. While Hopper and Eleven had a sweet dynamic in seasons 1 and 2, they grew apart as Hopper’s character devolved in Stranger Things season 3 into a more boorish and belligerent figure.
Now, the sight of Eleven looking so much like her adopted mother in the first glimpse of season 4 and Hopper resembling season 1’s Eleven could be proof that the series will make both characters grow during their time apart. Having a strong maternal presence like Joyce could help Eleven acclimate to normal life better than the standoffish Hopper ever managed, and being forced to fight his way back home could shear off some of the callousness and obstinacy Hopper gained in season 3. It is a promising first look at season 4’s new Eleven, with the Stranger Things heroine getting style tips (and, hopefully, life advice) from one of the show’s most underrated figures, Joyce Byers.