Stranger Things star David Harbour says that season 4 will establish the endgame of the series. After releasing season 1 of the popular Netflix show in 2016, the series has become a highlight for the streaming platform. While the TV show takes place in a small town named Hawkins, the end of Stranger Things season 3 has introduced a new setting and hints that a lot more is going on than audiences were aware of. Stranger Things season 4 will see the scope of the show increase massively, showcasing a hefty amount of action, new locations outside of Hawkins, a formidable villain, and exciting team-ups that promote complex character arcs.
Show creators The Duffer Brothers teased an end in sight, originally planning on a four-season run. However, the creators confirmed that season 4 will not be the final season, but that they do have a roadmap on what the remainder of the series looks like to ensure that the story is properly told. The pandemic gave writers even more time to perfect scripts, and there has been an abundance of fan theories brewing now that Stranger Things season 4 is on the horizon. Based on the latest Stranger Things season 4 footage, the series is clearly gearing up for an extravagant endgame. The latest villain, Vecna, promises an all-out war on the small town of Hawkins. One of the central issues to hurdle will be that this all comes while the group is divided.
Series creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, have compared Stranger Things season 4's ending to that of Game of Thrones. "We kind of jokingly call it our Game of Thrones season because it’s so spread out, so I think that’s what’s unique or most unique about the season," Matt says. While a GOT comparison might seem far-fetched when looking at the scale of Stranger Things seasons 1 and 2, the build-up of season 3 and the Mind Flayer have upped the tension of the series in a major way. Therefore, season 4 sets up Stranger Things' ending to be a Homeric saga that includes a ton of action from the alternate dimension of the Upside Down. Ross Duffer goes on to explain just how much the scope of the series has changed, leading up to the latest 2-part chapter: "[but] we didn’t know how big the season was going to get, and we didn’t even realize until we were about halfway through, just in terms of how much story that we wanted to tell this season."
Stranger Things Has A Definite End Point
Harbour expanded that fans can expect increased scale from Stranger Things season 4 – but also a definitive conclusion to the wider series – when speaking with Collider. While he could not comment on specific plot details, he did touch on the importance of the setting. According to him, season 4 will establish that there's an end in sight for the Netflix series:
“I mean, it’s bigger, that’s the first thing. In scope, in scale, even in the idea that we’re not in Hawkins anymore. We, locale-wise, we’re bigger. We’re introducing new stuff, but we’re also tightening and wrapping up in a certain direction to make it have a clear, clean specific, and definite ending at some point, which I can’t really talk about."
Harbour has been vocal about his excitement for audiences to see the new season. Now that Hopper is incarcerated in a Russian prison, the Byers and Eleven are in California, and the Creel House has been introduced, there are a lot of directions that the show can go in. Since the series is no longer only tied to Hawkins, the stakes are higher than ever before. With the introduction of new elements, advanced horrors will be just around the corner. The gang is split up, and Vecna has promised a hostile takeover.
How Stranger Things Season 4 Might Wrap Up
It's doubtful that Stranger Things will introduce a new villain for season 5, considering Vecna is the proclaimed leader of the Upside Down. This leaves two possibilities for Stranger Things season 4's ending. Either the war on Hawkins will end in Part 2, with Vecna somehow surviving for the next installment. Or, Part 2's endgame will finish with the Vecna gathering his troops for the upcoming assault. Stranger Things season 4 footage reveals that Eleven gets her powers back due to two possible contributing factors. She may be recruited by the Hawkins lab facility to fight against the Upside Down (which would explain Dr. Brenner's reappearance), and therefore agree to be experimented on again. But the other possibility is a theory regarding time travel. This would also explain the frequent clock motifs littered throughout Stranger Things season 4 clips. So, while the true Stranger Things season 4 ending is under wraps, the most obvious takeaway is that the endgame will feature the Upside Down vs. Hawkins on a scale never before witnessed on the show.
Not only has the series remained in Hawkins for the duration of three seasons, but the scope of the story has stayed relatively intimate. Stranger Things' ensemble typically breaks into smaller units, such as Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Dustin Henderson's (Gaten Matarazzo) team-up. Each of these groups has different individual objectives to accomplish, which allows people to spend more quality time with each of the characters. By expanding upon both the scale and the scope in Stranger Things season 4, fans may get to see how events in Hawkins relate to the bigger picture and what type of ending is in store for the town.