Are you familiar with the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, and its connection to the Upside Down? The new Stranger Things 4 trailer has arrived, and it’s proving just how little we’ve truly learned in the first three seasons. The one thing we do know is that the evil from the Upside Down is not some abstract being. It has a voice, and it has a plan. And for the first time, we truly get to see what it looks like in an almost human form.
There’s not a lot in the trailer that sheds light on specific plot points. But we do see Eleven approached by the same organization that once gave her powers. And the man has a warning that Eleven can’t ignore. Humanity can’t prevail against the Upside Down without her, and she doesn’t have any powers left. Meanwhile in Hawkins, Max’s graveside visit to her brother is both confession and revelation. But is Max being attacked by something, or has she come into her own powers?
It’s kind of amazing how the trailer makes Journey’s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” into an ominous and frightening theme for the season. “Worlds Apart” is also an apt description for poor Jim Hopper. Everyone believes that he died in the Battle of Starcourt. Instead, he’s a prisoner in the Soviet Union and forced to face the monsters of the Upside Down alongside others who have been unjustly subjected to that fate.
David Harbour reprises his role as Jim Hopper, with Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair, Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler, Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman, Jamie Campbell Bower as Peter Ballard, Eduardo Franco as Argyle, and Joseph Quinn as Eddie Munson. Finally, ’80s horror icon Robert Englund is joining the cast this season as Victor Creel, and he can be briefly seen near the end of the trailer.
Stranger Things 4, part 1 will premiere on May 27. The second half of the season will arrive on July 1.