The hit '80s-themed horror show Stranger Things is gearing to return for its fourth season. After the Battle of Starcourt, Season 4 finds the Hawkins kids dealing with the big changes and trauma of the previous season. CBR attended a roundtable with the older High School students of Stranger Things, including Maya Hawke (Robin), Joe Keery (Steve), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), and the new Joseph Quinn (Eddie). The group discussed what the upcoming season holds for their characters and their personal experience with the good and bad aspects of '80s culture that the season deals with.
Robin returns for an expanded role in Season 4. When asked what she was excited to explore this season, Maya Hawke recalled the Duffer Brothers calling her one day and asking her to work on a dorky run. "I was like, 'Don't worry, I got it,'" Hawke joked. She added that watching Season 3 "definitely helped me understand who the character was in a different way because I got to see all the scenes cut together and be like, 'Oh, this is the feeling that the person creates in me when I'm watching it' -- like looking at yourself in the mirror or something. I sort of got to know what I look like better and make different choices and kind of go further in certain directions in the fourth season."
Season 4 also taps into the Satanic Panic of the '80s. Joseph Quinn, new to this season, described the theme as brilliant. He added that " it was really kind of an interesting time. Heavy Metal just stands in the face of Christian, American values. It's a real stark contrast, and I think it must have been kind of crazy with that whole thing. I think it's really explored very brilliantly in this season." Joe Keery agreed, saying, "Bravo to the [Duffer] brothers. I mean, it's perfect, really, if you think about what they did." Keery also specified that the Satanic Panic was a perfect way to incorporate Quinn's character of Eddie, who steps in as a brand new Dungeon Master now that the main characters have entered high school.
CBR asked Quinn about his new role as Dungeon Master and his personal experience with the game Dungeons & Dragons. "I had no previous experience with playing D&D. I bought a book about D&D, and I read a third of a page of it," Quinn said. "I think it's very fun -- I played my first game of it recently -- but I didn't join a Dungeons & Dragons club or anything in preparation for the role. It's certainly an interesting way to spend your time."
Hawke described her love for the RPG Dwarven Forge, saying, "I used to play that with my brother when we were kids. We would buy the little figurines and these little sets and then paint them, and then you go into little battles. It's pretty fun." The cast also shared that they often played Settlers of Catan while on set, but Hawke specified that it's not the same as a tabletop RPG.
Keery also addressed how Stranger Things engages with larger audiences than just genre horror fans. "I think that's just like the brothers' instincts with character," he claimed, "and the fact that the show's about... It's just many shades of an outcast. Pretty much everybody is an outcast in their own right. Horror is just maybe the filter that the whole thing is going through. It's really a show about these characters." Hawke jumped in to describe it as "50 shades of outcasts."
Season 4 also features some incredible, previously unseen team-ups, including Robin and Nancy, who are certain to be a fan-favorite grouping. Natalia Dyer and Hawke joked that they achieved their dynamic by practicing trust falls and finishing each others' sentences. Dyer added that "a lot of it's in the writing, I think. These are two distinct characters. The beauty of the show and the way the brothers write is that they care about their characters. We also care about the characters. It does get to be sort of like they feel fully formed enough that you can start [to look at] who is this person with this person, and then add that in this person -- to explore the dynamics."
"I think with Robin and Nancy," Dyer continued, "these were two really different characters that, I don't know, it always felt a bit inevitable [to wonder], 'What is that like, when those two are together?' It was really kind of fun and magical." Hawke added, "I feel like the four of us all really balance each other out in really interesting, cool ways. All of the different ways that we were all paired -- we all have little moments together -- they're just... The characters are so clearly drawn that it makes it so fun to play." When asked who they'd love to pair up with in the future, the cast highlighted working with "grown-ups." They also described how it's strange that they can be on the same show as this incredible cast but still have never worked with some of them.
Addressing the Nightmare on Elm Street vibes of Stranger Things Season 4, Dyer mentioned that the movie was explicitly discussed. "I think the brothers are pretty open with their references and their ideas," she described. "They love this genre and all these stories that they draw from, so I think they were pretty upfront about the season going off of that film in particular."
Season 4 presented some new filming challenges, including the pandemic. "Our production got halted by everything that was going on," Dyer explained. "When we were lucky to be able to come back to work, which that was amazing, but just that alone changed so much about how we filmed and even just the order of how we filmed. So that was an interesting new feature." Keery described that in previous seasons they would film in blocks, shooting Episodes 1 and 2 completely before moving on. Quinn compared that to Season 4, where they "would have days where we were filming scenes from Episode 1 and Episode 9 on the same day." "It was all over the place," Dyer added.
Aside from the real-world difficulties, Stranger Things Season 4 also separates the group more than ever before. " I don't think I even saw David Harbour," Keery described. "It definitely felt like [the Duffer brothers] had bitten off a lot more on this. They were going for something that was bigger, and you can kind of feel that the scale of things [was] a little larger."
Keery also addressed his character's relationship with Dustin, the favorite pair-up from last season. "Steve is pretty close with Dustin," he claimed, which made for an interesting dynamic with Quinn's character this season, who also becomes close with Dustin through D&D. "The same taste in kids," Quinn joked. Keery added that Steve is "maybe a little sacrificial in nature, puts other people before himself, wants to make sure everybody is safe." He's not alone this season, however. Keery noted that he and Robin "are each other's best advocates for looking for love out in the cold world, so I think there's definitely elements of that as well."
"I'll babysit you," Hawke promised Keery, "and you can babysit me."
Volume One of Stranger Things Season 4 arrives on Netflix May 27.