Will ‘Stranger Things’ End With Season 4?

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Netflix

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 3 of Stranger Things.]

Independence Day was celebrated with more than just fireworks this year as Netflix’s wildly popular series Stranger Things returned for its third chapter and left many fans wondering, is the end near?

A lot went down in this latest entry as the gang in Hawkins dealt with secret Russian operations underground, a physical embodiment of the mindflayer and so much more. As the season wrapped up its eighth episode, viewers said goodbye to Billy (Dacre Montgomery) and Hopper (David Harbour) and saw the Byers — Will (Noah Schnapp), Joyce (Winona Ryder), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and honorary Byers family member Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) — leave Hawkins (presumably) for good.

With all of this change, it’s hard to see how the show will continue on as many of its key players are either absent or removed from the main action. So, will Stranger Things end with Season 4? The show’s creators (and brothers) Matt and Ross Duffer have repeatedly mentioned that they had originally intended on keeping the series contained to four seasons, but could Netflix’s desire to keep the show going cause it to last longer?

Back in 2017, the Duffers spoke to Vulture about plans for at least a fourth season. “We’re thinking it will be a four-season thing and then out,” Ross Duffer said. “We just have to keep adjusting the story,” Matt Duffer added. “Though I don’t know if we can justify something bad happening to them once a year.”

(Credit: Netflix)

In case anyone doubted that the show will in fact return for a fourth season, executive producer Shawn Levy told Collider back in 2018 that “Season 4 is definitely happening. There’s very much the possibility of a season beyond that one,” but he added, “that’s currently undecided.”

Considering the way things were left off in a Russian encampment that supposedly includes an American prisoner — that could be Hopper — there’s little doubt over the fact that the show will return for a fourth round. And even with his future on the show being uncertain, Harbour teased back in 2018 that a fifth season isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“We’re either going to Season 4 or Season 5,” Harbour told CNET. “It’s still being debated. I do know the arc of the story, though. This was something that I discussed with the Duffer brothers right from day one.”

He also added a promising statement in regards to his character pre-Season 3 release. “We’re not going to get lost in our story and leave these strands,” Harbour said. “We’re going to tie things up.”

(Credit: Netflix)

Could that mean the show will tie up Hopper’s final fate in Season 4? We’ll have to wait for the season renewal from Netflix to know for sure, but we’re holding out hope that there will be some answers for fans whether its about their favorite characters or more information about the season count for Stranger Things.

Stranger Things, Seasons 1-3, Streaming Now, Netflix