The fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things is an epic one, an inarguable statement if you count run time alone. The season was so epic (i.e., long), in fact, that the streaming platform split it into two parts. Vol. 1, which includes the first seven of the season’s nine-episode run, are currently available to watch. And yes, that means Vol. 2 will only contain two “episodes,” but those two installments clock in at almost four hours of viewing time.
And what will happen in those almost-four hours? Netflix released a teaser trailer for the back half of the season today, which gives us some clue as to what’s in store.
“It is over, Eleven. You have freed me.” Those opening words of the teaser very likely come from the Vecna we saw murdering kids in Vol. 1, but it could also be the Mind Flayer, the malevolent force that dominates the Upside Down. (My money, however, is on the Vecna.)
The teaser also gives us glimpses of Hopper (David Harbour) and Murray (Brett Gelman) in some most-likely Russian lab full of formaldehyded monsters as well as one dark roiling morass from the Upside Down that appears alive, well, and angry. We also get quick shots of explosions, the characters running for their lives and looking at things off-camera in terror as the Vecna says, “You can’t stop this now.”
We’ll be able to see if the Vecna is right or wrong when Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 hits Netflix on July 1, 2022.
