Stranger Things season 3 premiered in July of 2019, which, thanks to the pandemic completely wrecking the space-time continuum in 2020, somehow feels like it was approximately 9,000 years ago. As we try to get back to some semblance of normality, you may eventually find yourself slowly falling back into your old pre-pandemic routines and wondering, “Hey, when does Stranger Things season 4 come out?” But don’t get your hopes up for trip back to Hawkins this summer, because Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard has indicated that the new season won’t be released until 2022.

In a video call with a fan (via GamesRadar), Wolfhard was asked about the upcoming fourth season. “Season 4? It should be out sometime next year, hopefully,” he said, seemingly dashing hopes that it could get a surprise release anytime in the next eight months.

There was only one year between the first and second seasons being released, and a two year gap between season 2 (2017) and season 3 (2019). Now it looks like there will be a three year gap between seasons 3 and 4. As you can see if you caught Millie Bobby Brown in Enola Holmes or Godzilla vs. Kong recently, the former child stars of Stranger Things are not so small anymore, so the show is going to have to get creative with its timeline. We have not heard anything official about a time jump from creators/showrunners the Duffer Brothers (yet), but the kids began this story as 12-year-olds in 1983, and each season has progressed about a year thus far. The last time we saw Eleven/Jane, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Max, Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and the rest of the gang, the setting was the summer of 1985. If the new season keeps the same structure and only moves forward to 1986, the young actors will be around 18 when they’re supposed to be playing around 15. A real-world age gap like that is not unprecedented (see: Grease), but it’s not exactly ideal.

Season 4 will be nine episodes long, and the coronavirus delay actually helped the Duffer Brothers finalize and revise the scripts for the entire season, which will hopefully result in an even better season than the already-very-good season 3. They’ve previously referred to it as “the biggest and most frightening season yet.” Meanwhile, Hopper (David Harbour) has been confirmed to be alive after the season-ending fake-out that quasi-teased his death, and it seems like a lot of the action of this season will take place in Russia (where he’s imprisoned) instead of in the small town of Hawkins.

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