Stranger Things Season 4 Trailer Breakdown, References, And Easter Eggs
By
Mat Elfring
on
Finally, we’ve gotten a real look at the dark underbelly of what Stranger Things Season 4 has to offer with the latest trailer. And the upcoming season looks pretty screwed up. It’ll be a big shift for the crew from Hawkins as they’re moved out of Indiana, all the way to sunny California.
However, trouble still finds them there–or at least the Upside Down does–and the friends will face a new, formidable foe/tentacle monster. Meanwhile, Hopper is on the other side of the globe in a gladiator situation.
Watching the new trailer, there’s a lot to pick through as the video gives viewers a good idea of what the new season is about, as well as sprinkling in some Easter eggs and references to other things from the ’80s. Check out what we found out about Season 4–Volume 1 debuts on May 27 and Volume 2 arrives on July 1–below.
Back in Hawkins…
The lab in Hawkins had been destroyed, but that crack in the wall–which was a portal to the Upside Down–apparently still survived. A menacing voice can be heard, saying, “You’ve broken everything.”
Clocks are a repeating element here
If you’re a fan of old grandfather clocks, you’ll love this trailer. We see one here, and it’s midnight. The voice pops up again saying, “Your suffering is almost… at an end.”
Remembering Billy…
Billy sacrificed himself in order to stop the Mind Flayer, and left behind his stepsister, Max Mayfield. She has some voiceover throughout the middle of the trailer. “Dear Billy, I don’t know if you can even hear this. Ever since you left, everything’s been a total disaster. For a while, we tried to be happy. Normal. I know that’s impossible.”
Lucas is moving on
While the gang has been more into nerdy affairs, Lucas has moved on to play on the Hawkins basketball team. Mike and Dustin fully support him, appearing at the game.
Mike’s shirt
Mike and Dustin are watching Lucas’ basketball game, and Mike’s shirt says “Hellfire Club.” While that’s certainly a reference to the team of supervillains that appears in the pages of X-Men, this is the name of the Dungeons & Dragons club Mike’s in.
Will’s school project
Will and Eleven are outside of Lenora Hills High School, which is in California. Will has put together a project about Alan Turning, the “father of computer science.” He created the experiment that we now know as the Turing Test, which determines whether a program has artificial intelligence. Turing also wrote a chess computer program that no computer was powerful enough to run at the time, so he had to flip through pages of programming himself to figure out the algorithm in order to pick its next move when playing human opponents.
Eleven’s shirt
Eleven is wearing a Strawberry Shortcake shirt. Aside from being a delicious dessert, Strawberry Shortcake was a cartoon during the ’80s. The character was also plastered on pencils, stickers, and anything else you could buy. The funny thing about the character was it wasn’t an original creation. It was a spinoff of a greeting card line.
Another clock
Max is exploring a building–possibly Hawkins High School based on the colors here–and she comes across a clock in the wall. Maybe this supernatural villain we’ve been hearing speak–the Upside Down version of Victor Creel?–is calling the heroes of Hawkins.
Hangin with Mr. Hopper
Steve Perry’s vocals from “Separate Ways” by Journey can be heard as we see Hopper hanging out in a Russian gulag. Ok, so he’s not hanging out. He’s imprisoned. It looks very cold.
Creel House
We were first introduced to Creel House back in September, as we saw a man and his family move into the house during the ’50s, and everyone but the man ended up dead. There is obviously a connection to the Upside Down here, as the heroes of Hawkins are drawn to the house.
Powerless
Eleven has to step up to be the hero once again, but as she explains in a diner, she no longer has her powers. She lost them at the end of Season 3 after being bit by the Mind Flayer.
Breakin’ the law
Eleven ends up getting arrested in Lenora Hills. If we’re to believe what we see from the trailer, it’s because she’s considered a threat–even if she doesn’t have her powers anymore.
Meanwhile, in Russia
There are a few shots of Hopper and other Russian prisoners with weapons–one of which is lighting a spear on fire. Why? Well, that’s because they have to battle a demogorgon.
Meet Eddie
This is Eddie Munson, played by Joseph Quinn. He leads The Hellfire Club, the official Hawkins High School D&D club.
Flashbacks
We’re going to learn more about Eleven throughout Season 4, as we see shots of her in the Hawkins facility where she was experimented on.
Does Max have powers?
Eleven no longer has her powers, but in a brief scene, we see Max floating above her stepbrother’s grave. Does she now have powers or is someone else doing this to her?
Guitar god
There is a very brief scene of a man (Eddie, possibly) playing guitar in what looks like the Upside Down. Yes, we are as confused as you are. This was very weird and awesome.
Victor Creel
Robert Englund–best known as playing Freddy Kruger in Nightmare on Elm Street–is seen here as Victor Creel. His eyes were damaged a long time ago, as you can see healed scars on his face, and he probably can’t see anymore.
Tentacle monster
Here’s an enhanced image of the monster at the end of the trailer. It has tentacles coming out of its back.
Is this Victor Creel?
We get a good look at the monster’s face at the end of the trailer, and could this be the Upside Down version of Victor Creel? Considering the amount of shots of the Upside Down version of Creel’s house and the numerous clocks from Creel’s house found throughout the trailer, this could be him.
According to Netflix’s description of Creel from 2020, “Victor Creel is a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s.” Maybe that led the character to trying to find some immortality in the Upside Down–or this is just that world’s version of him.