Stranger Things Season 4 comes to Netflix this week, bringing fans back to Hawkins and the horrors of the Upside Down. This season features not only a move to California but also a transition into High School, putting the beloved characters into brand new sorts of danger. Ahead of the Season 4 release, CBR attended a roundtable with Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) and Noah Schnapp (Will). The pair spoke about returning to their characters and the new relationships and friendships showcased in this season. They also spoke about pranks, influences, and which characters they'd love to pair up with next.
Season 4 finds the Byers family, including Eleven, out in California, having left Hawkins and their friends behind. When asked how this new environment changed things for the characters, Millie Bobby Brown described, "I think it's really nice to see our characters kind of out of that environment, out of that group -- to see what they are like not in Hawkins because Hawkins has defined our characters in major ways. To see them in California, in a new environment, it's actually quite refreshing and gives our characters a bit of dynamic."
The pair addressed the fans' response to Stranger Things and their plucky, resilient characters. "I think that our show is so important for fans," Noah Schnapp explained, "because it shows people that you're not alone, and what you're suffering from... Everyone in our show is struggling with something, whether it's supernatural or natural, and it's relatable to fans across the world. That's why I think people love it so much because they just connect and resonate with it."
Brown also addressed the fact that a lot of time has passed since the very first season when fans first met the Hawkins kids. She described wondering that "so much time has passed, how will fans reconnect with our characters and reconnect with the story?" Brown wasn't worried, however. "I think the Duffer Brothers do a great job," she explained, "in talking about the time that has passed, but also moving forward. Like Noah said, people love the show, and people are dedicated. Our fans are very dedicated, and are willing to wait that time out."
Season 4 also deals with complex friendships and relationships. "It's that flexibility," Brown described, "of yes, you can be friends with the people that you love, but you also have to learn that you are your own person, and it's okay to grow apart, too. I think Will's character does a really great job of portraying that side of things, growing apart from your friends and trying to learn about who he is. Eleven is more dependent on her friends. She's also trying to find out who she is without them -- without Mike, specifically. So I think it's actually quite a nice testament to friendship, and this season's quite metaphorical."
CBR asked Brown and Schnapp about Eleven and Will's sibling relationship this season. "It's awesome," Schnapp described. "I love their sibling relationship that we get to show this season. You kind of see Will as an over-protective brother to El this season, through all her struggles in high school. It's been fun, off set, just to be together and be able to play that because prior to that, we never really had any scenes or much [chance] to work together. That was the first time we really got to be together and work alongside each other, and it was great."
Until now, Eleven has been mostly defined by her superpowers and her relationship with Mike. When asked who she would be without those two things, Brown said, "You get to really explore that this season. Without her superpowers, who is she? What does she have? What does she bring to the table? What does she know? Same goes without Mike -- what does she know, and who is she? What does she wear? What's her style? What's her voice? What does she believe in? These are all things that I think are really nice to explore this season and also really good timing. She's getting older. The kids are all getting older, and with growing up, young people want to gain autonomy from not only their parents but their friends. They're really finding out who they are and searching for that. So I think it's quite nice to see Eleven do that this season."
While this season promises to approach deep and complex themes, things weren't always so serious on set. The cast is known for pulling pranks on each other when the cameras aren't rolling. When asked about the biggest prank Schnapp ever pulled on her, Brown replied, "Gosh, I don't think Noah's ever really pranked me. He wouldn't be that stupid, I don't think." "We usually prank together," Schnapp added. "It's more us against the set." "Exactly," Brown agreed. "It's a unison thing. We like to team up." "This season was the first time Millie went against our team," Noah described, suggesting Brown did break their alliance. "I did, but I had to for the crew," Brown explained. "We just have fun," Schnapp admitted.
With such intense collaboration off-screen, the pair also addressed different on-screen groupings. When asked if there was another cast member that they would love to share a scene with, Brown initially hesitated. "Whatever we say to this answer," she said, "I hope you know we don't know... We are not clarifying that that's the pairing that we're getting for the next season. This is just things that we would like to see -- just FYI." After her warning, however, Brown admitted, "I would like to be paired up with Nonie [Winona Ryder]. I think that would be a really fun pairing just because she is the funniest thing ever, and I would just like to work with her more."
Schnapp jumped in and added, "I would always love to be with Millie and maybe like Dustin. I feel like Will and Dustin never interacted." "Joe -- I feel like you'd work really well with Steve Harrington," Brown supplied. "I've never worked with him in the show," Schnapp replied. Brown explained that there are so many characters that haven't really had a chance to interact. "I always ask people like," she described, "'Does your character know Eleven exists?' I think Will and Eleven should always just stick together. Will, 11, and Joyce -- that's a great group."
Since Stranger Things Season 4 introduces not only a new Upside Down horror but also the very real-world horror of high school, Brown and Schnapp addressed which one they found scarier. "I think the high school horror" is scarier, Brown described, "because that we know is real." "That's traumatizing," Schnapp explained. "The supernatural stuff is all in our heads and kind of CGI, but the high school stuff is real, relatable stuff that happens to everyone."
Finally, the pair addressed whether there were any specific movie references for this season. "That was [more] a Season 1 thing," Schnapp explained. "To prepare us to get ready when we were entering this new world of Stranger Things, they gave us an array of '80s movies to watch, but now we're pretty..." "...Well-versed," Brown supplied. "I was just gonna say that!" Schnapp responded.
Stranger Things Season 4, Volume 1 debuts on Netflix May 27.