I wondered if taking three years to produce a season of TV would temper audience enthusiasm for the world of Stranger Things. It didn’t happen — the reverse did. The show’s presence in pop culture has only gotten stronger after Season 4, with an old Kate Bush album hitting #1 on the pop charts and Eddie’s “Hellfire Club” T-shirt selling out by the millions. This is really something, folks.
It again raises the question of just what Netflix is going to do when the series inevitably wraps its run a couple years from now. Neither the cast nor crew has expressed any interest in direct spinoffs (except Matthew Modine, poor fellow, who has been begging in interviews for Dr. Brenner to show up just one MORE time). A spinoff HAS been talked about, but if the Duffers’ early word is anything to go by, it would have almost nothing to do with the main series at all.
But Netflix wants to make “Stranger Things Day” a thing. It’s one of those corporate-invented holidays like Batman Day or Star Wars Day that they use to overload social media with images of the profitable IP they own and encourage people to buy more junk relating to it. Typically a date relating to the lore in some way is picked, like May the 4th (be with you). Stranger Things Day is November 6, the anniversary of the incident at Hawkins National Laboratory and the day of Will Byers’ abduction, also the day of the pilot episode. This is not the first Stranger Things Day Netflix has hosted, but it can’t be a perennial thing without a steady stream of content. Where will it come from?
No, they’re not kidding about that last one — the critics said Episodes 8 and 9 could have been movies and now it has literally come to pass. Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, Phoenix, San Francisco, Austin, Denver, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington DC, Seattle, Las Vegas, Jacksonville and Toronto are getting theatrical screenings. Portland gets nothing.
We’re between seasons at the moment, so there’s not much to show or reveal — consequently much of this is fluff with the possible exception of “Super Secret,” which could be the first hints for Season 5. Don’t expect much, and don’t expect complete accuracy. The scripts are so fresh the ink is still wet. There is no shooting date and there probably won’t be one until some time in 2023, and then a year’s worth of VFX work (or more). I remember the first peek at Season 4 being an image of Hopper’s cabin, a lot of falling snow, and a grandfather clock. Only the clock was a significant element in the final product.
If there’s anything worth reporting that comes out of this, we’ll pass it on. In the meantime you can inspect this intricate poster filled with artifacts from every existing season. How many can you identify, and from which scenes?
