Netflix teased eager Stranger Things fans by releasing the first eight minutes of Season 4 online.
Posted to Netflix's official Twitter account, the new footage of the season premiere focuses on a normal, sleepy morning in 1979 in Hawkins, Indiana. Audiences will undoubtedly recognize the sinister Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) as he goes about his morning routine. Eventually cutting to the laboratory that housed Eleven in Season 1, the new footage takes a turn for the twisted as fans are given some more insight into the dark experiments conducted on a small group of children seemingly blessed with supernatural abilities.
Stranger Things Season 4 picks up several months after the conclusion of Season 3 and will see the core cast of beloved characters returning to face their biggest challenge yet. Split up across the country, fans can expect to see many familiar characters, including Jim Hopper (David Harbour), Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and many more. Amid these friendly faces, Season 4 will also see the return of the Demogorgon, a brutal monster that has plagued the protagonists throughout the series.
Stranger Things' fourth installment will also see the introduction of a horrifying new villain: Vecna. Speaking about the threat posed by the intimidating creature, Harbour explained that the monster's presence was essential to keeping the series fresh. "Vecna is a psychological horror that I don’t think we’ve really seen," Harbour said. "The Upside Down has been this Wild West world where there are creatures running around, there’s violence, but we’ve never seen something as calculatedly psychologically evil as this. That’s exciting because he is a true big bad that we’ve needed in the series."
Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer broke down how they brought Vecna to life on screen, explaining that it required less CGI than some fans might expect. "Vecna, throughout the season, is 90% practical," Ross explained. "We wanted a presence on the set that our actors could react to, whereas in Season 3, they were reacting to a beach ball. We wanted something there that we could actually film, and I just think that makes this villain scarier and more real and tangible, and we're just really excited for people to see him this season."
Stranger Things Season 4 will be released in two parts, with Volume One comprising seven episodes and Vol. 2 consisting of two more feature-length installments. Vol. 1 premieres on Netflix on May 27 while Vol. 2 arrives on July 1.
Source: Twitter