We’ve had a long wait for the fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, with the hit series having been affected by delays thanks to COVID-19. David Harbour, who can currently be seen in Black Widow, has been regularly sharing updates over the past few months about how shooting is going. The performer has now teased a future season 5, despite a lack of official confirmation by the streaming giant.
Speaking with SyFy, Harbour had this to say about the prospect of a fifth go-around for the Stranger Things team:
“Yeah, I think on my Netflix talking points list, I’m not supposed to say that there is a fifth season. If you were on set with someone doing a show that possibly might have a fifth season, I’m sure that those people, if you were close to them, as I am with the Duffer Brothers, would probably bring up things that might move forward into that next season. I mean, you know, from the very start of this show, I’ve talked to them about the arc of this guy [Chief Hopper] and sort of what would be, and they’ve talked to me about him, and what would be really profound and moving.”
From what we do know about the upcoming episodes of the show, Harbour’s Jim Hopper will be back after seemingly being killed, albeit stuck in a Soviet gulag. From the actor’s previous comments, we can look forward to a “rebirth” of sorts for the character following his time in prison, and a greater scope for the story altogether beyond Hawkins, Indiana.
In terms of other plot details, Matthew Modine’s Dr. Brenner is also making a comeback, while there are hints that Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven will be recaptured by the Hawkins Lab. Indeed, the most recent trailer showed a number of new children being overseen by Brenner, and there are suggestions that Eleven is either already incarcerated or is experiencing a psychic link to the laboratory.
Overall, we’re pretty excited to get fresh Stranger Things after a two-year break, especially given the apparent ambitions of the showrunners to take the narrative and characters into novel, and possibly even darker, directions. Whatever the case may be, production is still ongoing for the next season, and is believed to be wrapping sometime this August. Based on these dates, it’s probable that we might get another year without the Netflix favorite, at least considering remarks by Finn Wolfhard that 2022 is the more realistic date for a return to the platform.